It was a reddish egret kinda day
Went out to Merritt Island this am and found a fair bit of activity, but this reddish egret provided us with a good show. Nice clear water and full breeding colors:D. Taken with the D300, Nikon 500 f/4 lens, f/7.1, 1/1600, iso 640 and The Quick Action Harness.
Great action and beautiful bird and water!
Highlights seem a bit bright and I'm seeing a fairly strong color cast (blue and/or green?).
Nancy- I think this is quite spectacular. There are so many elements in the image that appeal. I love the symmetry provided by the strong reflection, and the action including the prominent disturbance in the water. This is perhaps a case where head angle is not so critical to the look and feel of the image as there is a strong feeling that the bird is concentrating on what it's doing. I would only suggest a couple of things- a slight CCW rotation and a slight toning down of the brightness.
Thanks Mike and John! Mike I do not see any cast on my monitor, but I did tone down slightly the brightness and looked at the CCW rotation. Worked a treat!
Hi Nancy,
Here's a repost that attempts to correct what I was seeing. Just did it quick and dirty with the average blur method but interested to know if you see any difference and if you think it's better or worse.
Beautiful image in all respects. I think Mike's repost is better, primarily as seen in the water colour/cast.
Stunning reflection image with great action. Although I love and use the blue average method, I tired another trick today that I already used on Roman's lions in Wildlife. Just used the gray eyedropper in Curves over the gray feathers, voila. Of course, you need a neutral area in the image for this to work. I didn't rotate or anything else.
See what you think.
Mike thanks, when I decreased the brightness the BG looks like your repost. The bird I kept a bit darker than your repost.
Fabs' version looks even better!
Colors on the bird look to be spot on to me.
Didn't notice before but also seem to be some oversaturated "stripes" in the fg water.
Fabs we posted at the same time:D. I think ours look very similiar. Greats minds you know.:D
I think your grey has a slight green cast to it?
Try the eyedropper, it seems to solve the cast problem.
It's a heck of an image wither way :)
Thanks Fab! Will give it a try.:)
Really like this Nancy and between the reflection and the minnow / plant material, I think they add to to the image.
Color is definitely a bit out of sorts as it looks as though it has both too much cyan and green on my end?
Also...check the bill in the reflection as it shows a much darker / more saturated red than the above water portion does.
Hi Nancy, I played with this earlier but had to go to dinner before I had a chance to post I used levels liked Fabs and set both the black, white , and mids with the eye dropper and pretty much got the same image as she did. Still a wonderful image.
Don Lacy
You don't take a photograph, you make it - Ansel Adams
There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs - Ansel Adams
http://www.witnessnature.net/
https://500px.com/lacy
Nancy...
I wasn't there so I have no clue how much blue presented in the water to your eyes.
This is what I'd imagine in my minds eye though...
I've enjoyed seeing all these reposts...with Fabs' being my favorite. I also like what Jim has done.
A personal thing I have with nice reflections such as this is that for some reason I have always preferred the same amount of room above and below. Looks more balnaced this way to my eye...don't know why, but that's how I feel virtaully every time! So here you go....yet another version!!:D Cropped a bit above, and added a bit below...
Well, guys and gals well done!! Thanks to all.:) Jim the water was definitely a lovely blue green color which acturally was quite striking. Daniel I could see adding more to the bottom for sure:).
Even in all the edits the over-exposed bill is still a problem/distraction, and is often an issue with RE shots. Symmetry looks good and nice action.
cheers
Gavin
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