Reddish Egret

[Phil Ertel]

This image was captured at 8:40AM on April 05, 2009 while on an excursion on the Alafia Banks in Florida with James Shadle on the Hoopie Deux.

I converted the RAW file in ACR and imported then into CS3 cropped some on both side and a little on the bottom). Once in CS3 I ran shadow/Highlights and ran noise reduction using the Topaz DeNoiser plug-in. I applied a slight adjustment to the mid tones using curves. I removed a few bits in the water and toned down some leaves with highlights. I resized/sharpened and posted.

Thanks for reviewing and special thanks for any comments/critiques.

Regards,

Phil


Image Specifications:
Camera: Canon 50D
Setting:
Manual Mode
f-Stop: 6.3
Shutter speed: 1/1250
ISO: 400

Lens: 500mm IS USM f4.0 plus 1.4x
Tripod: Gitzo GT3540LS with Mongoose 3.5; 4th generation
Flash: not used

[Daniel Cadieux]

Nice low angle, and I love the fluffed up head plumage. I also like the mangroves, especially in URC. I'm thinking this image would work better as a vertical by trimming some of the sides (a bit at right, and more at left).

[Graham Smith.]

Very nice shot Phil, and a beautiful subject. The bird really pops out against the shady BG. The only downside of that is the dark portion of the bill disappears a bit (on my monitor anyhow).

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Love the action captured in this image and as already mentioned the ruffled feathers. I agree a vertical could work well but like it as posted too. Many thanks for sharing Phil.

[Harold Davis]

james puts you on the birds in the right light!!! this is awesome action and cool punk rock doo! i like it as presented.

[David Thomasson]

Truly first-rate! What a striking shot. I agree with others that a vertical crop would also work.

Two nits:

1. Looks like a small masking boo-boo in front of the bird's left (camera right) knee, between the legs.

2. I would accentuate the tail feather -- sort of completes a line of the composition.

[Phil Ertel]

Thanks all your your comments. I'll have to try a vertical crop.

David, I like your suggestion on accentuating the tail feather. Question, how did you get it to blink on an off? pretty cool.

[David Thomasson]

Thanks all your your comments. I'll have to try a vertical crop.

David, I like your suggestion on accentuating the tail feather. Question, how did you get it to blink on an off? pretty cool.

It's an animated gif. You lose image quality with a gif (only 256 colors available), but it's handy for illustrating little changes like this. You can build them in Photoshop. Create your layers, then open the animation window. The help files will tell you how to do it from there.