Snowy Egret

[Peter M. Noyes]

I captured this photograph of a Snowy Egret in the everglades in FL. Nikon D2X with a 70 - 200MM F2.8 VR Lens. F11 at 1/1350 sec. ISO 400.

[Jeff Nadler]

Hi Pete,

The Snowy is quite soft, perhaps out of focus. It's difficult for me to pinpoint the contributor: not achieving focus on the bird, camera or hand motion, or a large crop presented. it does not appear to be subject motion. Since the subject is lacking some detail expected at this close range and has a uniform dof, perhaps this is a larger crop? Compositionally, it feels like you are shooting down on the subject thus might suggest lowering your tripod or bending down to get down to a lower shooting angle. Your ISO and shutter speed look ideal for camera motion.

[Jim Poor]

I don't think this is really that soft. Slightly soft, sure, and the whites are a bit overexposed which contributes to a softer look. I loaded it into PS and played around a little. There are only a couple spots in this image where there is not detail so recovering the whites from the original (especially if you use RAW) should be doable.

Combine toned down whites with a bit of selective sharpening and I think it will look much better.

As for the image itself, I like the environment shown, but many will find it distracting. The one piece of wizardry I would try would be to remove the large blade of grass from in front of the leg and tail feathers. You could either remove it or make it look like it passed behind as an option.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Nice find. Adding to Jeff's suggestions, I find the crop too tight and would give it more room top and bottom. Better eye contact would have improved the image.

[Arthur Morris]

Good job of working around the big brown stem on the right but soft on the eye and way too big in the frame.

later and love, artie