Reddish Egret Take-off

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Just walked up on a pair of reddish egrets approaching the noon hour I got a few shots when another male approached and chased this one off. Ft DeSoto Fl. I cleaned up the bg and added some canvas. The end result of working on this image created a 48mb image that I had a heck of a time downsizing for the web.I had to decrease IQ byalot for it to fit. Does anyone know how and why this happens? It happens a few times to me here and there.
1DMIII
300mm 2.8 L w/ 1.4x
ISO 400 f8@1/1600

[Amy Marques]

Great job on this having taken it during afternoon light! The soft colored bg really set off this nicely caught pose. The shadow is a nice plus in my books! Thanks for sharing, Cheryl.

[Stu Bowie]

Cheryl, cool flying posture, and against a lovely two tone BG. Considering the time of day, you have dealt with the light extremely well.

[Grace Scalzo]

Nice take off pose. There are some marks on the right side (as viewed) that look like repeats. The other thing that I might suggest when shooting with light so directly overhead is some fill flash to light up the underside of the wings. Real tough time of day to shoot, but also hard to quit when you have active subjects!

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

agree with Grace's advice. loved those feet and your shooting angle.

[gail bisson]

Fix the repeat marks on the RHS and you have yourself a great shot despite the light. Great eye level view of this guy.
Gail

[arash_hazeghi]

I like the wing positions the details look soft however, maybe more sharpening

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Nice take off pose. There are some marks on the right side (as viewed) that look like repeats. The other thing that I might suggest when shooting with light so directly overhead is some fill flash to light up the underside of the wings. Real tough time of day to shoot, but also hard to quit when you have active subjects!

Thanks Grace. I don't see the repeat marks but i do see the darn edge of the canvas mark where I cleaned up the upper right side.. Maybe you mean those redddish lines? They were reflections from something on the beach so I Xed them too. I also removed the two dirt blobbs in the shadow.

[Melissa Groo]

Great take off shot Cheryl. Love the underside view, and such a pretty BG. I would try another round of sharpening.

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Nice take off pose. There are some marks on the right side (as viewed) that look like repeats. The other thing that I might suggest when shooting with light so directly overhead is some fill flash to light up the underside of the wings. Real tough time of day to shoot, but also hard to quit when you have active subjects!

I forgot to address your second part Yes I agree about the fill flash and am practicing that as well. Thanks much

[Chris Kotze]

Lovely soft light and a super pose and colours.

[Dumay de Boulle]

Lovely pose and nice colors..Looks a tad soft so some more USM could help. Did you do shadow recovery under the wing? I would take some off the bottom till above the shadow. Nice one Cheryl

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Lovely pose and nice colors..Looks a tad soft so some more USM could help. Did you do shadow recovery under the wing? I would take some off the bottom till above the shadow. Nice one Cheryl

Thanks Dumay, no shadow recovery but I did bring up the whole image in ACR I believe I also added NR to the final so that may be why it looks soft?