Little Egret

[William Dickson]

Canon 1DX
f/4 500mm with 1.4
f/11
1/3200
ISO 800

This is another capture from my recent trip to Portugal. I hadn't photographed these birds before, so was happy to see them, as they are not resident in Scotland, although the odd bird has been seen here.

Will

[Lorant Voros]

Like the reflection and the tonality of blue and white. Very pleasing image, Will.

[Glenn Pure]

Nice work Will. All the elements come together beautifully here: the reflection, the wake and the contrast with the background. Excellent detail in the white bird too... but I wonder if that could be retained while brightening a touch? It would give the bird a 'cleaner' look.

[Mike Poole]

Bet you don't get too many reflections like this down at the loch!

Lovely detail here Will, I see where Glenn is coming from with the whites - all depends on how the light was at the time as they can vary throughout the day. A nice simple clean shot, looks like you had a good trip

Mike

[Graham Wilkes]

Love this Will, I also like the clean simplicity of the image, well controlled whites, beautiful blue of the water and reflection.

Graham.

[William Dickson]

Thanks for the comments guys, much appreciated. Hi Glenn, like Mike, I also see where you are coming from re the whites. I did think about brightening them, but decided to leave as is. The brightest whites (around the shoulder and neck areas) were at the the 235/237 marks, even at 240 on one part. I always was under the illusion that the 235/236 area was the target figure for the whites. Infact I did brighten them slightly at one stage and burned the parts over the 238 area. I think, like Mike mentioned, it depends on what the surrounding light is like, which then dictates what the birds whites are, during time of exposure. (as per Glenn's image of the Cockatoo, where the whites are showing the sunset light) I have always had a slight problem with this scenario. Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again

Will

[Glenn Pure]

Thanks Will. I didn't actually check the value of the brightest parts when I did the reworked version of yours. I simply went off visuals and so was purely a subjective view by me. From memory, I simply lightened highlights and midtones on the tone curve to achieve the reworked version thinking that it probably wouldn't pull up the brightest whites by much at all - so they are probably not too bad still. The effect does flatten the contrast on the bird a little though.

As for the cockatoo shot, I didn't do anything special there at all. In fact, I don't think I even checked the value of the brightest parts but went off visuals again ensuring I could see detail where I wanted it, which is probably silly but seemed to work in this instance. If you want to PM me a shot that you have had trouble with in the past, happy to take a look and see if I can figure out what is going on.

[William Dickson]

Thanks for that Glenn. I usually go on the visual as well. Then I will take the readings of the whites. Like you, I think the brighter version does look better, as long as it retains the details. Maybe I am too absorbed in the values.

Will