PInk and blue Egret

[Bruce Enns]

Another early morning Egret from my recent trip down south.

Canon 50D, Sigma 300 f/2.8 plus Sigma 2x, 1/250s @ f/5.6 Av mode EV+1, fill flash at -2/3, better beamer plus tripod

C and C appreciated...and thanks for looking.

Cheers!
Bruce

[Fabs Forns]

Hi Bruce, very artistic and soft (in a good way) presentation, with a distinctive mood. Enough color as not to be a high key image and great definition in the face. I would not like an increase in contrast, because it would kill the feel. I'm sure others will not share this opinion.
Did you add a gradient to the top?

Good techs.

[Geurt Bloem]

Love the mood and image is artistic for me as well. Well done.

[Dave Mills]

You have captured a rather common subject and made it into something very different. This image has great appeal to me due to it's subtlty,softness and warmth. I like how the blue actually frames the top of the image and gives the plain backround a sense of mystery and depth. Great job Bruce!

[Bruce Enns]

I think those are three of the fastest responses that I've ever had! Posted it, went outside for a short talk in the hot tub, came back in and 3 positive responses...thank-you all very much.

No Fabs, I didn't add a gradient or anything else. I just worked with what the camera provided. PP included some exposure adjustment, a boost in clarity, saturation and vibrance and lots of capture sharpening in ACR. In Photoshop, I still wasn't happy with the lack of sharpness in the face, so I used Pixel Genius's Photokit Sharpener Super Sharpener 2, and then a Narrow Edge Sharpening Brush on just the eye and bill.

Cheers!
Bruce

[Dany Tielens]

lovely images!..well done!...grtz!

[Alfred Forns]

Love the mood and feel !!! Would consider cropping just a little off the bottom I'm really undecided on having just the head cut off the reflection? Big Congrats !!!

[Bruce Enns]

Thanks Dany! Good point on the crop Alfred...I need to learn to look more at the whole image critically and I totally missed the missing-head reflection. Thanks!

Cheers!
Bruce

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Beautifully captured with a wonderful low angle and the softness of this images puts it over the top for me. Excellent exposure and pose . Love it.

[Jasper Doest]

Stunning light and atmosphere captured....however I could live with a bit more sharpness and contrast in the head.

[Mark Schmitt]

This has the feal of the aetherial. The soft look is what makes the shot, along with the little bit of gradation to the BG; helps the add some relief and dimension to a BG that might have been to mono-chromatic. I might have used some gausian blur to blend the zone between the blue and white tones: might eliminate the little appearance of noise and create a more gradual gradation. Great shot. Like it. ;)

[Peregrine Craig Nash]

I think this is wonderful but I would love to see what the original image out of the camera looked like.

[Bruce Enns]

Okay...here is the original RAW file from the camera, converted to 16-bit tiff ProPhoto RGB with Adobe Camera Raw defaults (which includes a standard small amount of capture sharpening). Profile converted to sRGB, signature added and then saved for web by optimizing for 200KB file size. No other PP.

Cheers!
Bruce