The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
I came across this egret feeding in a local creek by my house. I took a number of photos of the bird hunting and feeding, but the angle, as you can see, was not great (the bird was facing away from me for most of the shots).
Specific Feedback
I am trying to determine if the first shot, which shows more of the bird, is better, and as dramatic, as the second photo, which is more cropped but shows the “action” at a closer angle. The bird would catch its prey and then hold it for a few seconds in its beak before tossing it up in the air and swollowing it.
Technical Details
Both photos are cropped, the second more cropped than the first. Both were sharpened in Topaz as well.
Photos were taken with a Nikon Z6 and the Z 24mm-200mm lens, SS 1/2000, f6.3, ISO 5600 (first photo) and same shutter speed and aperture in the second photo, with an ISO of 5000.
Hi Richard, nice action you caught even though not completely ideal due to the angle of the bird as you mention. Putting the angle aside, both of these images show interesting behavior with the prey visible in both.
Whites appear hot on the bird however and the shadows on the bird appear bluish especially in the second photo. I’d first tackle the exposure issue for future shoots. Did you shoot these in an auto mode or purely manual? I use highlight warnings / highlight alerts (“blinkies”) to fine tune the exposure to make sure the whites are not blown out. I use settings that just eliminate seeing the blinkies. In an auto mode, exposure compensation must be used to eliminate the blinkies.
Hi Richard. A nice catch on both your parts and I really like the action in the second image. The blues in the shadows can probably be fixed with a simple color temperature adjustment in your RAW processor. It’s also possible that you could bring down the highlights enough to recover detail in the whites as the beak doesn’t look overly bright. I’d definitely go back to the RAW image and see what playing with highlights and shadows and temperature can do to make this look better as I think it has potential. While the head shot in the second image shows the action very nicely, it doesn’t look like you really had the pixels or enough fine detail for that large a crop. It would make a fine inset image for telling the complete story.
Cool action shot with the crawfish Richard. I always have trouble with the whites on these birds. @Allen_Sparks and @Dennis_Plank have provided some good tips for this type of shot, and for post processing.
Good action on the feeding egret. I’m with Ed, I too have trouble with these birds. Even when I have a lot of negative compensation, the whites still have the blinkies. The moderators have some good advice and worth trying.
