Snowy Egret... breeding plumage and color, crest raised
I captured this image earlier this year at the rookery in the alligator breeding pond in Gatorland, Orlando, Florida. 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
1/3200 F/11 Matrix Metering EV 0 ISO 1100 Auto 1 WB, camera supported by a monopod
Post processed in Lightroom Classic, Photoshop CC 2019 and Neat Image for noise reduction
Cropped slightly for composition and presentation
Joe Przybyla
"Sometimes I do get to places just as God is ready to have somebody click the shutter"... Ansel Adams
I'll be the harsh critic here. Yes to a bit more head turn but the big problem for me is that f/11 had brought up a lot of unwanted and distracting BKHR detail ...
with love, artie
BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.
BIRDS AS ART Online Store: we will not sell you junk. 35 years of long lens experience. Please e-mail with gear questions.
Check out the new SONY e-Guide and videos that I did with Patrick Sparkman here. Ten percent discount for BPN members,
I'll be the harsh critic here. Yes to a bit more head turn but the big problem for me is that f/11 had brought up a lot of unwanted and distracting BKHR detail ...
with love, artie
Yup, you're right, but you know Gatorland and I was really close to this guy on the railing. I had too many tips of the bill go soft from being close and the bird turning it's head. So I opted for a little more depth of field, always a balancing act and decisions to be made.
Thank you for viewing and commenting, Artie.
Joe Przybyla
"Sometimes I do get to places just as God is ready to have somebody click the shutter"... Ansel Adams
YAW>. Stopping down is always a danger unless the BKGR is far, far away. Here, probably about 15 feet was too close ...
with love, artie
BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.
BIRDS AS ART Online Store: we will not sell you junk. 35 years of long lens experience. Please e-mail with gear questions.
Check out the new SONY e-Guide and videos that I did with Patrick Sparkman here. Ten percent discount for BPN members,
Way better but the head turned away is an image-wrecker for me. Assuming that this is the same frame you have done some pretty good work in post ...
with love, artie
BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.
BIRDS AS ART Online Store: we will not sell you junk. 35 years of long lens experience. Please e-mail with gear questions.
Check out the new SONY e-Guide and videos that I did with Patrick Sparkman here. Ten percent discount for BPN members,
Way better but the head turned away is an image-wrecker for me. Assuming that this is the same frame you have done some pretty good work in post ...
with love, artie
Hi Artie, same frame, same background. Just a trick I learned from having too much time to spend at the computer. Works with white birds, possibly black birds. Uses Photoshop and Lightroom but I think you could probably do it all in Photoshop. First make a selection of the bird and as much of the crest as possible. Feather and Invert the selection so just working on the background. Use the Paint Brush tool at 20% opacity. Paint over the background until it looks right, some areas need more than others. Delete the selection. Now using the paint brush blend in the areas in the raised crest and other areas near the bird that don't look right. Now I take the image back into Lightroom. I use the Adjustment Brush with a minus saturation setting. I turn on a red mask so I can see where I am painting. I paint over the whole bird. Next I select a Color Mask and with the eyedropper choose white as a color. Using the smoothing slider I adjust so the effect will only be on the white feathers. Then move the saturation slider to the left until I have the white of the feathers where I want it to be. This takes any green out of the white feathers. Works most times for what seems impossible.
P.S. I Photoshop I use a large soft brush, zero hardness.
Last edited by Joseph Przybyla; 05-27-2019 at 02:16 PM.
Joe Przybyla
"Sometimes I do get to places just as God is ready to have somebody click the shutter"... Ansel Adams