Purple Gallinule

[Joseph Przybyla]

I captured this image Monday morning at Circle B Bar Reserve in Polk County, Florida. The Purple Gallinules have moved into the Fire Flag plant to feed on the blossoms. In a normal year this happens from late July to early September. This year it happened about two months late, the drought last winter was most likely the cause. Comments and critique welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.

Nikon D500
Nikon 80-400mm F/4.5-5.6 VRII AF-S ED shot at 400mm
1/1000 F/5.6 Matrix Metering EV +2/3 ISO 1800, camera supported by a monopod
Post processed in Lightroom Classic CC and Photoshop CC 2018
Cropped from horizontal to vertical for composition and presentation

[Jonathan Ashton]

Very eye catching but I think it is a little overexposed or bright.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Very eye catching but I think it is a little overexposed or bright.

Hi Jon, thank you for viewing and commenting. I smiled when I read your comment because I had thought the image too dark on my display and raised the exposure 0.30. Here is a repost with the exposure lowered by 0.30 and I lowered the contrast a tad.

[Bill Dix]

Great pose. Interesting that they are late this year. Repost is an improvement.

[Glenn Pure]

Nice work, Joe. These look quite similar to our Australian Purple Swamphen. Will get around to posting one some day. Your repost is an improvement. I have trouble getting the exposure looking right if I work in light that is too bright or too dark when I'm editing. Maybe your issue? Background is excellent. Detail, tone and colour look great as does the pose. If mine, I'd take a whisker off the bottom of the frame.

[Joseph Przybyla]

I have trouble getting the exposure looking right if I work in light that is too bright or too dark when I'm editing. Maybe your issue?

H Glenn, thank you for viewing and commenting. I think you are correct, the room I do my photo editing in goes from dark in the morning to very bright in the afternoon. Closing the shades helps but it is still bright. I also think in a long session of editing that a tolerance for color can happen leading to oversaturating a image. Keep shooting, my friend.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Jo I have had similar experiences in the past, processing images in differing lighting conditions will have a profound effect on your output. I know have my study in very low light.

[gail bisson]

The repost is excellent. I love the comp and the little flower curled in his toe.
My computer room is quite dark as well but certainly not "black". I have a single window and I raise the blind raised about 4 inches. If I was really keen I would paint the room neutral gray ( as per the experts online!)
Gail

[Glenn Pure]

My computer room is quite dark as well but certainly not "black". I have a single window and I raise the blind raised about 4 inches. If I was really keen I would paint the room neutral gray ( as per the experts online!)
Gail

Gail, John and Joe: I'm no expert but from the reading I've done, it comes down to two things 1) consistency in lighting 2) monitor brightness set to work in the room lighting. Steve Kaluski posted a while ago on Wildlife that he edits in a very dark room - but I'll bet his monitor brightness is set to match this. If you edit in a brighter room, the monitor brightness will need to be calibrated to those conditions. If you use calibration hardware, this will likely have recommended settings for both room lighting and monitor brightness. It's also worth thinking about what is comfortable lighting to work in. For that reason, I personally wouldn't go too dark.

As I have a room with variable lighting, my solution is to look at a processed image at different times of day and night time to make sure it looks OK in all conditions. Not ideal but seems to work.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Thanks everyone for viewing and commenting, very much appreciated.

Regarding display brightness and room brightness in post processing, I use a Datacolor Spyder 5 + to calibrate my display and set the display brightness. This unit monitors the ambient light in the room and adjust the display brightness for the ambient light. I do much better in low light rather than bright light.