Repost below: cloned out partial trunk to left, lightened a bit, cleaned up around the bird, and ran noise reduction… thank you for all the suggestions and comments!
This was taken on a gloomy, rainy morning at Reelfoot Lake in northwest Tennessee. I wanted to capture the environment with the cypress trees starting to turn as well as the mood of that day. Not my usual composition so I’d be interested in others’ thoughts on an image like this.
I like images like this. You captured the mood quite well. The lone egret, amongst the large trees, gives the shot a sense of solitude. The shot has a painterly feel to it. Nice.
Composition-wise I’d say it’s pretty strong, though I wonder about cropping in slightly from the left to remove that dark corner of the trunk that’s protruding.
Otherwise, I think it looks great, with those muted background tones giving the image a nice moody feel, and which also help the subject pop a bit more.
I like it. The mood, and the egret stands out very well. Fine shot on a rainy day.
I understand the remark made by @Max_Waugh about the dark trunk. Maybe remove the trunk (cloning) instead of a crop, to keep the branches of the left tree?
I can imagine this scene with the camera rotated a tiny bit to the left, to place the egret a bit closer to the right edge and show more of the left tree. That might take away the wish to remove the part of the trunk in the lower left.
Agree about the removal of the partial trunk on the left. Composition good otherwise. I would prefer a little more brightness throughout. Think that can be done without ruining the mood you were looking for.
Hello, Allen, and what an amazing shot with a great atmosphere captured. The Egret stands out very nicely and the colours throughout the image are amazing. For ISO800 you seem to have gotten quite some noise (at least on my screen), so I might be tempted to have a round of noise-reduction to see if that would make the image even stronger. Cheers, Hans
@Allen_Brooks, @Max_Waugh, @Han_Schutten, @Patricia_Brundage, @Hans_Overduin
Thank you for the comments. I worked up a repost with taking your comments in mind. Posted below the original image.
Hans, I ran noise reduction on the original and repost - I think the noise level is aggravated by the amount I had to lighten the darker areas - quite a contrast versus the egret that I originally exposed for.
Removing the trunk and some of the debris helps. It’s a matter of taste, no doubt, but for me the darker, first image, conveys the mood better and gives a bit more pop to the egret.
I like the general composition with the Egret small in the frame, Allen. It does feel like it needs some counter-clockwise rotation, though I’m sure part of that is the way the trees lean naturally. Of the two presentations, I definitely prefer the first with the darker tones. I like the removal of the root edge in the second image.
I also prefer the darker image because it accentuates the Egret even more. Yes it does need a little bit of counterclockwise rotation, removal of the left treetrunk is beneficial. I would also remove some of the white spots in the water as I don’t believe they add to the image even though it is part of the environment. Excellent work!
I prefer the darker trees, for me they fit in the overall mood of the image. I like the removal of the trunk at the left edge. But in the end: it is YOUR image @Allen_Sparks , so process it to your taste.
