Love It or Hate It...

[Joseph Przybyla]

We went to Gatorland this morning for a couple hours. A lot of Cattle Egrets nesting, along with photographing them I captured this image of a Snow Egret displaying for a mate. Comments and critique welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.

Nikon D500
Nikon 80-400mm F/4.5-5.6 VRII AF-S ED image captured at 240mm
1/1600 F/8 Matrix Metering EV +2/3 ISO 2500 Auto 1 WB, camera supported by a monopod
Post processed in Lightroom Classic CC, Photoshop CC 2019 and Neat Image for noise reduction
Cropped from horizontal to vertical for composition and presentation

[David Roach]

Do you even need to ask... Love it... Wish for some detail on the right side of neck and shoulder. I do realize that's being stupid picky though given light angle. Beautiful as is... TFS

[Joseph Przybyla]

Do you even need to ask... Love it... Wish for some detail on the right side of neck and shoulder. I do realize that's being stupid picky though given light angle. Beautiful as is... TFS

Hi David, thank you for viewing and commenting. Overcast, flat light and whites don't do well for detail in whites. The detail in whites comes from micro shadows which are not present when evenly lit, and the light has few shadows. I could lower the highlights on whites on that side but then the white would begin to grey from reducing the highlights too much.

[David Roach]

Hi David, thank you for viewing and commenting. Overcast, flat light and whites don't do well for detail in whites. The detail in whites comes from micro shadows which are not present when evenly lit, and the light has few shadows. I could lower the highlights on whites on that side but then the white would begin to grey from reducing the highlights too much.

Fully understand and I still love it.

[John Mack]

I like it. Nice to see something different. Love how the bird is symmetrical in the frame.

[Joseph Przybyla]

I had another go at post processing. I think this one is better. I guess this shows that even with an overcast sky there is a direction to light.

[gail bisson]

I like the idea behind this image but you need perfect even lighting on both sides of the face to really make this work.
I wish the body was as centered as the neck and head and that the feathers on the LHS were not matted down- that little bit of dirt on the feather really catches my eye.
I find shooting at Gatorland very difficult. You did well to isolate the bird with a clean BG.
Gail

[Arthur Morris]

I like it. You did a good job of getting it sharp on the eyes. And yes, even on very cloudy days light has direction.

with love, artie