Great Egret

[Joseph Przybyla]

I'm back... finally finished my house painting, pruning bushes and shrubs, and spreading mulch. I captured this image a couple of years back at Gatorland in Orlando Florida, and recently worked it up. At Gatorland the birds are so close to the boardwalk that no matter what aperture is selected the depth of field is narrow. In this image I had a little over and inch of depth of field, about a half inch in front of and back of the focus point. So really a half inch depth of field because in this case the back doesn't come into play. So focus on what you want sharp and let the rest gradually become soft. Comments and critique welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.

Nikon D500
Nikon 80-400mm F/4.5-5.6 VR AF-S ED, camera and lens supported by a Oben carbon fiber monopod with a Wimberly MonoGimbal head
1/500 F/5.6 Matrix Metering EV 0 ISO 180 Auto WB, image captured at 400mm (600mm 35mm Equivalent)
Post processed using Lightroom Classic, Photoshop CC 2023 and Topaz Denoise AI
Cropped for composition and presentation

[Jonathan Ashton]

Good exposure and DOF looks good. Nice to see the detail in the plumage.
I don't think it is overexposed for one minute but I wonder if overall brightness/luminosity were reduced slightly perhaps even more detail would be appreciated??

[Kurt Bowman]

I really like the DOF also Joe. Not sure about changing the luminosity on the whites though. I would need to see a comparison. Really nice work!

[Dorian Anderson]

Techs look pretty good to me. My only issue is that I want to see that beautiful neck. The hunch doesn't serve this species well.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Hey Dorian, I actually love it when these guys pose this way lol I love the image as is - lovely whites, good comp, and beautiful BG.