Most unusual action shot pose, and great capture of the water dripping off the feet and the splash around the bill (is it a fish?). I agree that more noise reduction would improve things, and it would be even better if the near wing were angled upwards - perhaps a moment earlier or later.
Thanks, Richard. I have a few more images in the series, but this was the one I liked the best. I'll post more at a future time when I finish with PP. Here's a bit more NR on the BG, some straightening, and eviction of a couple of feathers off the water. No, he doesn't have a fish. I was amazed as I watched this guy and a friend work the pond this way. They kept doing this skimming behavior, but I never saw one come up with a catch.
Last edited by Ian Cassell; 11-02-2010 at 08:36 PM.
Really cool action shot. I have never seen Egrets feed in this manner. Re-post is an improvement. I agree with the need for more room on the right. Maybe a pano crop?
Peter
Ian, that's a HA we don't see every day! It made me laugh right out loud when I saw it.
The repost definitely helped the noise issue. Another things I've tried that sometimes works is to take the first post, change the blend mode to Screen and then pull the opacity down until the BG is where you want it to be. That tends to take a lot of the noise out so you rely less on NR tools. I then adjust the rest of the image (in this case the bird) by painting back the darker whites from the original post with the brush tool set to black FG.
Nicely captured! I also wonder about a bit off the bottom and a slice more on the right - more pano than you have now - although I do like this look very much.
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