Gatorland Egret portrait

[Stuart Hill]

This image was taken at Gatorland in Feb. This is a cont'd experiment on using portrait B+W techniques on my bird images. All comments/critique welcomed.

D300 + sigma 500mm
Iso 500 1/3200 at F5.6

regards.
Stu.

[BillTyler]

Beautiful bird. I like the black and white look. The mass of twigs and branches is somewhat distracting. If you feel inclined to some Photoshopping, I'd at least take out the bright branches that are projecting from the base of the beak, and perhaps darken some of the other vegetation.

Bill

[Jackie Schuknecht]

I like the B and W and might consider taking some of the branches away from the head area as well. Some of the whites look over maybe you can bring them down a bit.

[Stuart Hill]

Only a few edge details are blown. Agree re the twigs. A quick repost to see if I'm going in the right direction.

I've done a linear burn on the main highlights of the egret but for my eyes now seems a bit muddy? It's a personal thing but I like a lot of contrast in my b+ws.

Thanks again for the help.

regards.
Stu.

[Nicki Gwynn Jones]

Hi Stu,
The repost is definitely going the right way.
I think that the whites on the bird's back are much better but agree that the head looks a little muddy. Perhaps you could just brighten this area.
Best,
Nicki

[Stuart Hill]

Thanks for the help everyone and thanks for taking the time to post. Much appreciated.

Have removed the brightest twigs from the egrets head and 'killed' the highlights in the foliage to centre focus on the bird.

kind regrds.
Stu.