Great Egret Plumage

Critique Style Requested: Standard

The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.

Description

There were a lot of egrets displaying at the St. Augustine alligator farm a few weeks ago, this is one of a number of shots. I liked this one with the foliage and expression on the bird’s face.

Specific Feedback

General impression, cropping, treatment of the background to make it darker. Too busy of a background? How to make this more ‘artistic.’

Technical Details

Fuji X-H2S, 1/800s, f/8, ISO 2000, 520mm


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4 Likes

Beautiful Image. Great Composition and sharp and crisp image …

1 Like

The breeding plumage of the great egrets is just stunning, with the feathered tailfeathers displayed. You’ve captured that well here.
The Alligator Farm is fun, although there can be way too many touristas for my taste. They sometimes let photographers in early, with fair notice.
Whites are handled extremely well! The dark BG sets the whites off perfectly.
The BG looks fine from here.
Well done!
Sweet!

1 Like

What a treat! I have so many egret shots but none displaying like this!

The bird is sharp and whites are lovely. He shows up well against the dark background.

I had a play. Extended the bottom edge to give the bird more room to stand, and expaned the left hand side and top as well. I like your dark background but those brighter parts were really hard to deal with, so bird selected, inverted and the background lightened and a “field blur”. I also added a big yellow, low opacity brush over. These changes made the image more “artistic” but maybe not what you had in mind.

1 Like

The display is gorgeous, Debbie. I do wish that some of those bright features in the background were gone, but I understand there’s no way to avoid them on location and removing the ones behind the feather spray isn’t practical. You might try bringing up the shadowed parts of the egret a bit to see if that gives it a bit more pop from the background.

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Beautiful catch Debbie. I Like the strong whites against the dark background. And the pose is priceless. Well done.

1 Like

@glennie can you post what you did, I’d love to see it. I was going for more artistic but was not sure how to accomplish it.

Thank you @David_Bostock, @Dennis_Plank and @SandyR-B !

This is quick and dirty, but I think you get the general idea.

1 Like

@glennie got it, interesting. I tried adding a fade vignette with Nik ColorEfex just now, but I like the kind of flat background here.

Love the tack sharpness of the bird! I agree that the bright spots in the background are a little distracting. Great shot nonetheless!

1 Like

What an elegant Egret. The light and composition are spectacular. If I had only one critique it would be that the sky peaking through on the left distracts my eye a little from the subject. Wonderful photo!

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@Melamud @christinedorresteinphotography Thank you - I’ll rework it to remove some of those bright spots as soon as I can.

1 Like

Glenys’s edits provide a much more artistic take for this image. The subject in the origin is awesome and I like the lime green color of the facial skin of the egret. Whites are beautifully exposed and the dark BG suits the image quite well. Can’t wait to see the Redo…Jim

1 Like

I love this photograph and the dark background sets the mood for the primary subject. Wow!

1 Like

@glennie - excellent work - I’ll have to try this!