Reddish Egret Dance

[Asta Tobiassen]

This was taken at Ding Darling in April. This was only my second trip to Florida, and second time to Ding Darling. Many people have remarked on much less activity there is in Ding Darling recently. That is exactly what I experienced as well, but I still had the pleasure of watching a bird that never stops entertaining me, the Reddish Egret, frolic about for his meal. I absolutely love Florida for the amazing natural beauty, wildlife and light (sun is a real plus to someone from the Pacific Northwest ).
7D, 100-400L, f6.3, 1/2500, ISO 400. Editing was done in LR including slight crop, exposure, saturation and sharpening. Noise reduction in Noise Ninja. Used Perfect Layers (thanks to the suggestion from Sid Garige on my last post) to allow noise reduction to only affect the background. Thanks for looking.

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Asta,

I like the story here, very nice narrative. What a great time, watching and then capturing the moments - a great day in life IMO. I would like to see more space around the bird, too tight in my opinion, let's see what others say. The head angle is away from the lens and intersects with the wing. I am not saying this is bad, just an opportunity to improve the positions and make the image stronger. Was the light overcast, image seems a tad dark or drab. The whites and reds do not seem as bright as usual with this species. On balance, I love the dance and fun loving pose. Water drops are a plus and the picture seems light hearted and fun to view, thanks for sharing.

[Asta Tobiassen]

Thank you for the feedback. As I recall it was a bit overcast that day. The sun would come in and out of the clouds. I went back to improve the exposure and colors, but then I created a lot of noise, so had to do noise reduction on the bird. The details in the red part of the bird were not great to begin with, but after the noise reduction it appears way too smooth. This is a problem I find myself facing a lot. I don't get the proper exposure at the beginning, and when I try to fix it later the noise ruins the picture.

I agree with the crop critique as well. The problem I had was in the original the bird is a little to the left of midline, so when I do a smaller crop he ends up in the middle.

Here is my next rendition with your suggestions. Thoughts? I am on a very steep learning curve and so appreciate your help!

[Thanaboon Jearkjirm]

I like your re-pose better and maybe a bit more room at the top, the wing is kind of close to edge for me. Agree with Jeff comment about the pose and very nice background color that match the bird well.

About noise, try to expose to the right of the histogram. Darken over expose image tends to have less noise than lighten an under expose image. However be careful not to push too much to the right that highlight data are toasted.

[Jeff Cashdollar]

This is much better, let's talk exposure. Have you read the "Art Of Bird Photography". Browse the Education and Tutorial Forum for a thread named,..Why Don't My Pictures Look Like That (located at the top). It references this book and other helpful areas for photographers. Especially those on a steep curve like yourself. Please tell me more about your exposure settings. For example, I shoot: AV, Al Servo, AF, AWB, ISO=400 with Evaluative Metering 90% of the time. Some time I bracket as well, which can help with exposure by providing a lighter and darker image of the initial shot. It is true, the key to exposure IMO is the histogram. That is why “Digital Basics” is good reading material. It explains how different images create different histograms and will help you understand the relationship between tones and data. For fun, when possible take a shot of the area you plan shooting. Read the histogram on the back and make adjustments. You will start to understand the right adjustments to add and subtract light, it is not that difficult. Just requires practice and must become second nature over time.

Keep posting and practicing, that is the key to success. Focus on making incremental changes and you will start to progress quickly. Also, when you get comfortable, critique other images. This is a two way street. Remember this is an educational site, we are all here to learn.

[Asta Tobiassen]

Thanks for your help again Jeff. My exposure settings are almost the same as yours, except I almost always use spot metering. It seems like the exposure on my subject is way off when I try evaluative metering. I notice most other people use evaluative as well. I don't know why it's such an issue for me... I generally start at an ISO of 400 and then adjust that as needed for my shutter speed. I tend to use f7.1, but adjust that depending on the depth of field I want or if I am having problems with enough shutter speed I may adjust that down. Thanks for the written references. I will check those out. Do you know if Digital Basics would still apply to me given I use Lightroom?

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Digital basics has a broad approach. It does reference Photoshop but also histograms, digital-workflow, storage, several tools like curves found in both LR, PS and many other topics. Interesting that you use spot metering. Some think it can be challenging to use. Until recently, I used it all the time in manual mode. Recently changing back to AV with evaluative metering. I am doing a series on street photography with the changing city backgrounds the AV makes some of the adjustments for me. In this example, what did you use a metering point of reference. Maybe the mid-tone water?

This image looks to average to a mid-tone so I would suggest evaluative. I only use spot with real bright highlights or extreme lighting conditions. But both will work and many pros use spot as well. It is all what you get use to and master. Keep on posting, practicing and reading - you are on ihe right track.

[Kerry Perkins]

Hi Asta, this is a very nice capture for the action - could use some improvements for the overall composition as Jeff mentions. Your repost really kicks the image quality up a notch due to the added light. Photography is all about light, and capturing as much of it as possible in the camera is key to getting the exposure right. As for the crop, you don't have to constrain your images to standard aspect ratios. It's ok to crop to a non-standard aspect, just means that prints would have to have custom frames.