Great Egret

[Joel Eade]

1D3
300mm 2.8L + 1.4 TC II
Hand held from a boat, Wateree Reservoir, SC
ISO 400
f/5.0
1/3200
manual mode
evaluative metering

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Joel,

I like the vert crop and full wing spread. Techs look good and nice job controlling the background/frame. Whites are in check and nice job with manual settings. I would crop a small layer and clean-up bottom edge. Up to the first ripple, subject stuff I tend to like clean edges on the base.

[Kerry Perkins]

Joel, I like the captured action and composition. There are a couple of things that stand out to me eye however. The image has a strong purple color cast (look at the color of the bird compared to the white areas of this web page). There are two areas of very hot whites, which are technically not clipped in the image but I don't see any detail there. Did you lower the output of the whites in PP?

[Joel Eade]

Thanks for critiquing Jeff and Kerry ... I have re-worked it accordingly ....

[Jeff Cashdollar]

This looks good Joel. How did you correct the cast, well done. The whites are white and look more detailed. Nice recovery my friend what a nice moment with nature.

[Joel Eade]

Thanks Jeff....I used a color balance adjustment layer and moved the magenta-green slider slightly toward green and then using a saturation adjustment layer I reduced the red and blue saturation. To get more detail in the whites I used Topaz InFocus and increased the micro-contrast slider.

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Topaz inFocus, I need to research this. I use their NR plug-in for CS5. I was thinking about a Sat., layer with reduction in red and blue. Nice post work, looks good.

[Kerry Perkins]

Joel, wow buddy - great repost! I wish more people would use the color balance adjustment (that's what it is for), as it preserves the luminosity of the image and only acts on the colors. Nice save on the previously hot areas as well. Very nicely remedied!

[Cody Covey]

Usually I just use the WB slider (or auto correct if possible) in Lightroom. Would using the color adjustment be a better way to go about it?

[Joel Eade]

I don't know which way is better, I have never used Lightroom but if it works....it works!