Red Sea Egret

[nick clayton]

This photo of a Western Reef Egret in the Red Sea was taken when on holiday at Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. This was the only occasion when I saw two together during the two weeks I was there.

Canon EOS 40D, Canon 300 mm f4, f8, 1/500, ISO 100, exposure +1/3, 20th August 2008

My first posting in the critique forum, I look forward to your honest comments.

[Randy Stout]

Nick:

A big welcome to Avian. It is a great place to learn and grow as a photographer.

I like the interaction you captured, the feet on the bird on left,sharpness.

The whites on the bird on left are just a bit hot on the back, and would benefit from toning down slightly.

If you have the canvas, I would consider a slightly looser crop all the way around.

Good first post, look forward to more. It helps to mention your post processing workflow briefly so we better understand how the image was crafted.

Cheers

randy

[Arthur Morris]

I love everything about this--poses, interaction, EXP, head angles, ect. But not the line through the two necks.

The look like long-billed Snowy Egrets! Really long-billed. Does the dark morph occur where you were?

[Sid Garige]

Great pose and interaction Nick. Very well done.

[nick clayton]

Thanks for all your comments; this is a great place to learn.

Randy, I do not have the original RAW file for this image, at the time I was backing to one external hard drive and backing up to DVD every so often, unfortunately the hard drive crashed losing several images, following that disaster I ensure I back up to two external hard drives, fortunately I kept a copy of the processed / cropped TIFF and JPEG on my computer hard drive.

I don’t think the whitest point is 255 or above and therefore not blown out, what do you think is the best point to take the brightest whites?

The image was processed originally in CS3 and then in CS5. I made levels (including white point and black point corrections), curves, saturation and selective colour adjustments. My work flow was a bit all over the place, I am presently working through Arthur’s Digital Basics to give me a more structured work flow (hope you like the plug.)

Arthur, yes the dark morph did occur where I was and although I was aware of its presence and saw loads of white birds, I was disappointed I didn’t see a single dark morph bird.

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Nick. There was once a dark morph Western Reef Heron somewhere on the East Coast of the US.

[Randy Stout]

"I don’t think the whitest point is 255 or above and therefore not blown out, what do you think is the best point to take the brightest whites?"



Nick:

I thought the tuft on the back of the left bird was hot, but after looking in ACR/CS5, it was no more than 230, so you're looking good. One of the clues that I do use is loss of detail in the whites, which got my attention here, but as presented it isn't overexposed

Look forward to more.

cheers

Randy

[Arthur Morris]

Running a Linear Burn on the whites in situations like this will usually work well and restore density and detail (unless the whites have been heavily Recovered during conversion).

All details of course :) in Digital Basics (recently updated).

[nick clayton]

I can see what you mean Randy, the highlights do appear that they are blown out.

I had tried running a Linear Burn on this image Arthur but I didn't know whether it was necessary as the lightest whites were well back from being blown out. Here is the image after running a Linear Burn, looks to have improved the highlight detail, thanks for the tip.

[Arthur Morris]

The image looks better. I often use a Linear Burn to restore density and details even in images that are nowhere near being over-exposed. If the whites are at 236 or 226 but they do not show much detail I will run a Linear Burn. Best to use Select/Color Range to make your selection.

[nick clayton]

Thanks Artie, I did use the Select/Color Range to make my selection as per Digital Basics.

[Arthur Morris]

YAW and thanks for the plug :). The great thing is, the stuff works and the directions are easy to follow!

[nick clayton]

I have been taking digital wildlife photos for a few years now and have used the various tools within photoshop such as levels and curves but have never been fully satisfied with my results or work flow.

A few weeks ago I purchased Digital Basics and am really happy with the results I am getting and it has given me a regular workflow, although I still have a bit to go through. I look forward to picking up a few more tips such as the Linear Burn trick.

Now how's that for a plug Artie?, you could say I am a satisfied customer

[Arthur Morris]

I am a very big fan of both satisfied customers and happy campers :) Thank you sir.