Morning Wader - II

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Canon 40D & 400MM 5.6
Gitzo 3530LS
Mongoose
EV -1 1/3
ISO=400
f/5.6
1/4000
80% of original

LRII --->CS4

[Jeff Cashdollar]

I will post another-picture with some fill-lighting to accent BG colors.

[Lance Peters]

Hi Jeff - loe the colours, some of your whites do look a little bright although not technically over. The nech/Head area looks a little soft due to the crop most probably.
Reflection is not that strong and would consider not including it (although at 20% of the original can see why you chooose to).

Tall birds often work best in a vertical format - dont know how close you were - but at 1/4000th dont think fill flash is going to help very much.

Keep em coming :)

[Ben Egbert]

I like this a lot, but agree the reflection is not strong, the water not smooth enough. I would clone the white debris floating on the water. A vertical may be better.

[Julian Mole]

Hi Jeff,

Nice bird I'd love to see one of these in person.

I like the nicely reflected Fall colours, so I can understand why you would want to include quite a bit of the background, however looking at your photo I just wish the Egret was larger. Now that might be a problem if by "20% Crop" you mean this image represents just 20% of the original frame.
My second thought was that the photo would have benefited from being taken in the vertical format, but I suppose you could always crop the original frame that way.

Hope this doesn't sound too negative after your generous comments yesterday.

Julian.

[Gus Cobos]

Hi Jeff,
I like the capture, good advise given, yes this could work as a vertical crop, but I like it in the horizontal view...keep them coming...:cool:

[Jeff Cashdollar]

20% crop means that 80% of original remains. The distance was a stretch for 400MM lens, thats why I included the reflection, Lance busted me (smile).

Julian, thank you for your comments, I am here to learn and everyone's input makes me stronger.

[Alfred Forns]

I like the idea of a vertical here is you are including the reflection Did well with the exposure that dark bg sure makes the meter open up !!!

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Thanks Al, too far away to spot meter so I used EV, almost all I had. This guy was 70 feet away or better, it was beyond the range of the 400MM, buy I gave it my best effort.

I like the blurry reflection but others may not.

[Oscar Zangroniz]

Jeff, I personally like the soft colors you were able to capture along with the reflection. I too would have liked a vertical view on this one.
Non the less, I like your capture very much.
Congrats,

[Harold Davis]

the water colors are fantastic. if the bird was moving, would have been nice to get it with those colors behind the bird too. agree with the others that a vert would be stronger. nice job with the condition you were given!

[Richard Waas]

Everything already covered by the ones who know better, but I like it, nice job!!

[Jeff Cashdollar]

I positioned the dark scene behind the bird to separate the fall colors on the water.