This image was made over a year ago. The day was cloudy. I wonder what I might do (or might have done) to improve it. In an effort to get some detail into the feathers in processing I think I made the image too dark. The ISO setting was unintentional, leftover from a previous action. In fact, all the settings were "accidental", by the way, not planned, since I was not prepared for this photo opportunity. But then I'm not sure how I should have prepared for it anyway.
I agree with your own critique. It is too dark and the plumage has a greenish color cast. It seems you didn't have enough light to get more details since the shutter speed is not high enough to overcome the motion blur. You could have gone up to ISO 1600 but it would have been much noisier then.
Hey Wendell, you are right that the image is dark. It also suffers from some severe JPEG compression artifacts from your compressing down to just over 21KB...feel free to use more of the allowed 150KB per image so that the details are clearer in the photograph! This was a tough situation and you could have either gone with a higher ISO (much more noise) to try and freeze the action, or a lower ISO to try and create an artistic effect with the head/neck motion blurred and the feet/legs perfectly still. To do this a tripod would have been best, and a lower angle probably would have helped to clean up the background some.
Agree with suggestions and particularly like the idea of lowering the ISO I call it going with the flow !!!!
You will find the suggestion excellent for early morning or late afternoon flight images When there is not enough speed for sharp do blurs btw not a bad idea for the middle of the day with harsh light Often you will make pleasing images when nothing else is possible !!!
Snowy egret
