Egret Vanity

[Ian Cassell]

Canon 7D
Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L

1/800sec f/5.6 ISO 1250 HH

Crop, S/H, Sharpening in CS5
NR in Noiseware Pro

I guess the HA is a touch off.

[Don Railton]

Hi Ian

I Love the symmetry an the subltle colours. The grass adds interest. Nice detail around the head, and yes I think the HAP might be after you but it's a keeper for me...

well done..

DON

[Lance Peters]

Hi Ian - Yes the HAP may question you ;)
Not sure how large of a crop this is? - IMHO reflection is not strong enough to warrant inclusion and feel the composition would be improved also by cropping from the bottom removing the reflection.
As presented it does have a balance with the egret at the top and reflection at the bottom - but doesn't quite work for me due to the reflection not being quite strong enough to carry it off.
The whites on the top of the head look like they might be very close to being over!! Could go back to the RAW and use the highlight recovery option to see if you can get some detail back there.
Keep em coming :)

[Ian Cassell]

Thanks folks. It is a moderate crop, so I can probably get rid of some more, but the ISO 1250 might make it too noisy. I'll have to try and see. I'm curious about reflections and maybe some of you can express your opinions. When is a reflection worth keeping and when should it be evicted? I thought the reflection here was interesting even though it's not a perfect mirror.

You might be right about those whites. I can probably recover a bit more.

Excuse me ... gotta run ... HAP are pounding on my door ... :D

[Lance Peters]

Thanks folks. It is a moderate crop, so I can probably get rid of some more, but the ISO 1250 might make it too noisy. I'll have to try and see. I'm curious about reflections and maybe some of you can express your opinions. When is a reflection worth keeping and when should it be evicted? I thought the reflection here was interesting even though it's not a perfect mirror.

You might be right about those whites. I can probably recover a bit more.

Excuse me ... gotta run ... HAP are pounding on my door ... :D

Hi Ian - IMHO reflections unless they are strong dont add a lot in most cases - As I mentioned I liked the Idea of the composition - but felt the reflection was not quite strong enough to pul it off - Could well just be my personal tastes though - Don liked it - Interesting to see what others have to say!!

[Maureen Allen]

I know nothing of the HAP :o (although I am checking all of my shots for head angle infractions)

I like the way the egret is so intent in his hunt. The grass behind him is nice and adds interest. I would not have included the reflection because it seems to be disrupted by the water movement. To me, a reflection doesn't necessarily need to be a mirror image but it should compliment the subject to warrant inclusion. Here the reflection looks a bit distorted and doesn't seem to add anything special.

[Bob Miller]

Ian...i have to agree that this image is stronger without the reflection . Love the colors in the water and the fine feather detail. How are you sharpening? USM?

[Ian Cassell]

Thanks. I'll try it without the reflection. Bob, I use either Smart Sharpen in CS5 or the Noel Carboni action with Genuine Fractals/CS5. I haven't decided which I like better. Smart Sharpen is a lot faster (that's what I used here).

[Ian Cassell]

I did this quickly with an online image editor at work. Does this work better?

[Bob Decker]

I don't always agree with the "reflection police," but in this case I think they were spot on. ;)