Today there were a number of snowy egret's feeding in the pannes at Allens pond Massachusetts Audubon sanctuary. After a couple of hawks flew by, they became very nervous and took off. This B I F was taken handheld, Nikon D3S, 300 mm F4 lens with 1.4 telly converter. ISO 800, 1/3200 at F8 with 0.3+ EC in aperture priority. Adjusted in light room, cropped, and finished postprocessing in Photoshop with selective sharpening, Eye adjustment and adding some blue to the background. Otherwise it would've been a completely white on white.
I like the wing position and feather detail quite a bit. There is noticeable noise, however, throughout the bird. The exposure probably could have benefited from a lower ISO and a bit more EC, which would have brightened the image a bit and reduced the noise.
The noise is much improved in the repost and the background looks more natural too.
I like the wing position too, but wish the bird wasn't angled away and almost past you.
The bill and legs appear a bit jagged along the edges perhaps because of sharpening?
Last edited by Sidharth Kodikal; 09-30-2010 at 04:53 PM.
Reason: spelling
The egret is very sharp, and the deatils on the wings look good. Too bad it had already flown past you when you pressed the shutter. With a white bird on a white BG you needed alot more EC...likely upwards of +2. This would have resulted in a high-key image, which is OK because if you have a choice you want the subject to be perfectly exposed, and not worry about the BG having some colour or not. As is the egret is pretty much underexposed. For tthe repost I went in "Levels" and slid the midtones slider, quite a bit, until the egret looked as white as it should (to taste anyways). You could lighten the face and body even more! Better getting right in camera though;)
Daniel Thanks I will try harder. Spur oif the moment shot. I was taking pictures of Yellowlegs when the birds flew and had just time to capture this image
Snowy egret
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