Reddish Egret

[Axel Hildebrandt]

This is one I made in Florida when James Shadle took us to Alafia Banks. I like to include habitat if that is an option and am wondering if you find the mangroves in the BG distracting.

1D4, 500f4, 1/1600s, f/5.6, ISO 400, manual exposure

[Keith Carver]

EXP and colors look great, Axel. Good head angle and framing. I would tone down the BG a bit - as presented the green spots are mildly distracting. TFS!

[Michael Hogan]

Axel, The lighting, wing angle and the sharpness of the image make the Heron stand out. The BG is not a problem for me. However, as Keith said toning it down a tad might improve it.

TFS
Michael

[Kiran Poonacha]

Beautiful light angle here axel Bhai, loved the details and loved the way the bird pops out..

[Stu Bowie]

The Egret is separated very well from the BG, so it doesnt bother me. Lovely flying posture, sharp, and I like the underwing detail of the near wing. Well captured.

[Stephen Stephen]

Axel very nice wing position, details, composition and sunlight on this bird. The BG doesn't bother me at all as the bird really stands out well.

[RAM MALLYA]

amazing action captured

[arash_hazeghi]

nice wing positions, I remember this guys! did put up a show for us! agree with toning down the BG a bit, another run of NR on the BG might also helo smoothen it further

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Axel, BG is working for me. The orientation of the bird to the sensor is perfect. Great light as well. Thx for sharing.

[Declan Troy]

I'm for keeping the mangroves. A personal preference but I lean towards the image telling a story rather than just trying to isolate the bird. Having the mangroves recognizable as such (i.e., don't blur them any more) is informative in telling me about where the bird was. In this case the egret is so sharp and nicely illuminated it is plenty isolated from other image elements.

[Fabs Forns]

Mangroves are fine with me, in fact I think they add to the image. showing where the bird lives. They are not in front of him or partially covering (which may be OK too). Great EXP, detail, sharpness and pose.

[Dan Busby]

Axel - yours was a good question to ask. IMO the bird is so well exposed and stands out from the rest of the frame so well that the background is not an issue. It IS there and it invites you to explore the rest of the picture. But the bird is the central focus and is strong enough to stay that way. I think this arrangement is ideal - show some habitat but keep the focus on the bird.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Thank you for all the suggestions and comments, it's much appreciated as always. I find the different approaches very interesting, it seems that it boils down to personal preferences.

[Ed Prete]

nice background separation and good detail. Nice wing position too.

Is it cropped at all? I only ask as it looks like you had good DOF to get most of both wings in focus, but only shot at 5.6.

real nice job, love these birds. Saw a few in my travels last week there.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

nice background separation and good detail. Nice wing position too.

Is it cropped at all? I only ask as it looks like you had good DOF to get most of both wings in focus, but only shot at 5.6.

real nice job, love these birds. Saw a few in my travels last week there.

Thanks, Ed! Yes, this is cropped, probably 50-60% of full frame (I don't have the TIFF file here). I went to f/5.6 because I only used the bare lens without TC.