Great egret

[Patti Lamm]

Sony a9ii, 200-600 @ 600 mm, f/11, iso 800, 1/2000, late afternoon, sunny. Used Topaz Sharpen, and Photoshop to remove extra crud from the water.

First post. If the Eager to Learn forum was still open, I would have posted this there.

[gail bisson]

Hi Patti and a warm welcome to BPN!
The egret looks great- good wing spread, flared primaries and tail and the head is not merging with the wings.
Whites are well exposed for despite the harsher light.
There are 2 problems with this image- the first is the not so nice background (BG) and the bluish smudge in front of the egret. Is that area due to your cloning?
Gail

[Daniel Cadieux]

Big welcome to BPN Patti!! The IQ on the egret looks great with lots of nice details in those whites. Good jumping pose. The area above the head has a cool "psychedelic" vibe to it. The rest of the setting is not as appealing though, but I am sure you can find this species in other cleaner spots. I am wondering about the bluish haze below the wing? Good start, and looking forward to more from you, including critiques to others' images...all part of the fun here :-)

[Patti Lamm]

Thank you for your comments, Gail & Daniel. I'm actually laughing about the blue smudge because I thought that was something on my laptop screen. I should be able to improve upon that using photoshop.

As for the background, you're correct in noting it's not the creamy BG that would really make the bird pop in the photo. I'm still new at this and hope to have more opportunities (and increased skill) to allow me to get shots like that! That being said, I actually found interesting the "V" in the background, along with the diagonal line in the water.

Thanks again for your responses, and the chance to learn!

[John Mack]

The pose is nice. Agree with Daniel and Gail on the technical side. keep em coming.