Flight of the Egret.

[Stu Bowie]

The whiter birds are always a challenge to expose correctly, for two reasons - not to blow the whites, and to extract detail. I feel I got both spot on in this image. Sometimes, I do use a + EC, but in this, my EC was 0. Although this was shot at 6.47am, I added a warming filter at 15% to the sky. I also decided to leave the hint of cloud. Unfortunately, most of the cloud was below him, thus losing it to suit the comp.

Canon 50D
100-400 L IS USM @ 400mm
1/3200
F/7.1
ISO 400

EC 0
Hand Held.

[Morkel Erasmus]

thanks for the info Stu - from this morning??
you did well on the whites as you yourself noted. lovely detail and rich tone to the egret. I would like to see what it looks like without the cloud - not a nit (I think the cloud works) but I just wonder if it will distract the eye of the viewer easily?

[Stu Bowie]

Thanks Morkel. Didnt go out this morning, it was overcast. This was taken at the end of last year.

[Morkel Erasmus]

okay - yeah this morning was pretty cloudy here too but I got some decent shots at our local pond for a change. I take it this was taken @ LC?

[Manos Papadomanolakis]

nice details on the whites and sweet...pose!!!

[Scott Frye]

Nice whites and detail in the wings -- I don't think the cloud adds much to this nice flight shot

[Ramon M. Casares]

Nice exposure, comp, detail, colors and pose! I like the cloud in the corner, it doesn'tbother me at all.
Light is great too. I only see the edges of the bird a bit soft, specially arround the legs.
Congratulations!

[James Salywoda]

Well done Stuart nice detail and exposure.

[Doug Brown]

You're really starting to dial in your whites Stuart. I have to agree with your self-assessment. Nice wing position but I'd like to see the bird's head pointed towards us. I'd probably remove the cloud; it competes with the bird IMO. Also I'd like to see this posted at 1024 pixels wide.

[Tony Whitehead]

Great whites, Stuart. Interesting how opinions vary re the cloud - I like it. Significant posterisation in the sky from jpg compression - saving closer to the 200Kb limit may reduce this.

[Stu Bowie]

Thank you all so much.

Doug - wish I could post it at 1024. This is already a significant crop.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

I would personally loose the cloud in the LRC Stuart. Why not upsize with Genuine Fractals and then crop? I did that with a few images that were big crops and as long as the main subject is sharp I think the results are satisfactory.

A little better HA would be great, but your exposure and timing are super mate. :)