Great Egret Graceful Pose

[Troy Lim]

Only had a moment to get 3 frames of the pose. He/she was to my left in the shade with a little ray of light getting through the trees hitting the feathers. I know HA is not parallel to the sensor. The subject was standing on slope of a small island in a pond, thus creating the blur FG.

All comments and tips are appreciated.

Camera Nikon D3S
Exposure 0.002 sec (1/640)
Aperture f/8.0
Focal Length 1000 mm
ISO Speed 640
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash On, Return detected

[Robert Holguin]

Simply beautiful photo. Fabulous pose, the feathers coming out just add so much to its grace. Excellent work. Well done.

[Jeff Dyck]

I love the breeding feathers and the background colour. I agree with your self-assessment of the HA - better eye-contact would have been a plus. I don't mind the foreground so much, but it's a shame the blur obstructs our view of the birds feet.

[Ofer Levy]

Fantastic pose and BG! I think HA is fine as the bird is preening and looking at its feathers...
I wish the feet could be seen and would also consider adding more room on the sides.

[Daniel Cadieux]

I think HA is fine too...it is not looking away anyways. I would have preferred the FG element not be there in this case. The BG is super!

[stuart wanuck]

like it troy very pastoral

[Doug Brown]

Cool pose and nice BG. The OOF FG stuff is a little distracting. I like the idea of more room around the bird. No one has commented on the whites, but on my monitor they look a little gray. I just calibrated my monitor using a new Sypder3 Elite and am wondering how the whites look to other viewers?

[Daniel Cadieux]

Doug, you are right...the most of the plumage has a grey/blue tint to it. No doubt caused by some shade as there is mottled light on the egret, with the feathers hit by sunlight being whiter.

[Troy Lim]

Doug, you are right...the most of the plumage has a grey/blue tint to it. No doubt caused by some shade as there is mottled light on the egret, with the feathers hit by sunlight being whiter.

I shot with a Beamer and the bird was in the shade. How do I correct the cast? Thank you guys.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Troy, in this case there are two very easy ways I can think of off the top of my head:

1 - Hue/Saturation...desaturate the cyan and blue channels completely (good)

or

2 - Selective Color...choose the white channel and reduce the cyans until the cast is negated (better)

[Troy Lim]

Troy, in this case there are two very easy ways I can think of off the top of my head:

1 - Hue/Saturation...desaturate the cyan and blue channels completely (good)

or

2 - Selective Color...choose the white channel and reduce the cyans until the cast is negated (better)

Daniel, thank you. Will do that shortly.

[dankearl]

Just a beautiful image, from the foreground up.
I would be tempted (no matter how unorthodox) to crop the foreground out of the photo.
The feet don't show anyway, and the rest of the image is about as good as it gets.

[Jim Crosswell]

Beautiful image Troy! I like the preening pose, BG and think the HA is fine.