Thought quite a bit about whether to post this one or not, as the BG (water) doesn't contrast much with the bird. A previous Egret I posted some time ago mentioned that issue. However, I really like the pose here, so keen to get other members thoughts/feedback here. Cheers.
D500/500PF, 1/3200th sec, f7.1, iso2000, HH on a generally overcast morning with the sun behind me.
I tried a couple of variations in PS to help the bird pop a bit more. Increasing the contrast modestly on the bird and decreasing it on the background helped the bird pop a bit more from the background.
There are several sensor spots along the upper left border of the image.
Hi Randy,
Thank you for the re-post. I see what you were trying to do, but I must say that to me the BG looks like it has more contrast, not less (at least on my monitor). The bird looks good, but I think the whites look a little hot on the crown and the top of the far wing. (maybe somewhere between the two versions). I did reduce those areas in my OP. The sensor spots are not in my raw file, so I think they're the result of use of the spot healing tool to remove distractions in those areas (I need to look more carefully!) Thanks again Randy.