Critique Style Requested: Standard
The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
A great egret takes flight.
Looking for any suggestions or technical advice on how this might be improved.
Canon 7D Mark II, EF 100-400mm f/4.45-5.6L IS USM @ 210mm, 1/2500ths, f/5.6, ISO 1250, +0 EV. Mid-afternoon, open sun, high overcast.
Hello, Aesthetically I like the idea of such a white bird against a dark background, especially with the pop of the orange beak. The texture of the wings are beautiful and this image highlights the texture to some degree but the whites seem blown out. However, I don’t really have the LR skills to give suggestions. I also find the pose a bit strange as I cannot see the legs and I know I should be able to from this angle. That all sounds negative and I don’t mean to be…I think this is a great composition.
I am curious…what post-processing did you do?
Hi Robena, I was wondering if anybody would miss those legs. Your comments don’t sound negative; after all, I’ve posted it asking for a critique, and I’m glad for your thoughts on it.
I’ve only worked on this in LR – I used to use PS more often, but with the past two or three updates to LR I’ve kind of left PS behind for my own simplicity. (Nothing definite or permanent; just a gradual change of workflow.) I exposed to the right for this shot, so I can still pull back on the whites, and I’ll give it a try. The pose was thus: I was slightly above and completely behind the egret. It was on a pebbly beach at the water’s edge, with lots of glare beneath it. It was just lifting off and the BG was distracting to me. Post-processing: I simply masked the BG and dropped the exposure to blackness. It’s a rather quick and cheesy approach, but it sometimes works with a bit of finessing. Retrieving the legs will be a bit difficult; the great egret has skinny black legs and they don’t even show up well against the BG without any masking of it. Perhaps PS can help me with it…
Thanks again for your candid comment; I really do appreciate it, and it’s what I’m looking for when I post an image. Best regards – Michael
It’s a striking image Michael, exposed and processed for the overall impact rather than the legs!
That’s not a criticism, I think that it works well, and there may be another member of the forum who could advise on how to get them back (should you want to).
The highlights are blown in places and LightRoom’s masking tools should be able to help you pull back the whites in these areas.
YES !!! Really nice photo. Beautiful !!!
Very nice, Michael. I really like the white on black presentation. I too noticed the remnants of legs dangling underneath, but I think my solution would be to simply remove those remnants rather than try to recover detail in them. Most of the whites look very good. I think pulling down the highlights in the brighter areas with the local adjustment brush would take care of the rest.
Hi Ryan, Gill, and Dennis, thank you all for your feedback and your kind comments. I’m going to pull down those highlights and just remove the remnants of the legs. You know, I wouldn’t have noticed the blown highlights if it wasn’t for feedback from NPN members – I really like being part of this community! 
Hi again folks,
Well, to all of you who provided me feedback, I think I must have been too enamored of the egret’s beautiful feathers… I tried to look right past those overblown highlights. And, boy were they overblown: they’re truly 255, with no detail to recover in them. RATS !! (If I was still teaching critical thinking, I’d call this a case of my own willful ignorance!)
Oh well, it was a beautiful moment, and it’s been a good lesson if just a little bit painful.
My thanks to all of you who commented on this one. I’ll chalk it up as one that got away. Best regards to everybody, and I look forward to the next time you help me with another dose of reality! – MET 
Michael. I don’t know if you were caught by surprise on this one, but I used to shoot with the same camera and when I was thinking I might encounter white birds, I would shoot in manual exposure mode and adjust my exposure on something white such that I was just starting to show the blinkies on the review image. As long as the light isn’t changing rapidly, it works well.
Thanks for the tip, Dennis! I was indeed caught by surprise – by my failure to see the blown highlights in post-processing, not by the bird taking flight in-field. My only excuse for field technique is that this was an older image, taken back when I normally shot in aperture priority. Today I usually shoot manual and pay close attention to those blinkies, but then… not so much. Live and learn… 
Hi Michael, nice catch - love the seeing the outstretched wings like this. The whites could use just a little amount of tweaking to my eye like bringing whites down slightly in ACR. I’m always afraid of graying out the whites too much though so I try to be careful with that. I use the same technique Dennis mentioned for controlling whites when shooting - shoot in manual mode and use the blinkies to avoid blowing out the bright areas. Nice capture - thanks for sharing!
Hi Allen, thank you for your comment and advice. The hot spots, it turned out, were actually blown completely. Looks like I’ll be going back and asking that bird to pose again! 
I am musing on the phrase “willful ignorance” for photographers…I often fall in love with my idea or capture…and then ignore that it doesn’t quite work. As you said, it can be painful. I try to tell myself I can always come back tomorrow, improve my technique, and/or capture a different moment. And hopefully I can learn to slow down a bit in the field and anticipate my subjects better. Always humbling! Thanks for your musings and humility!
Hi Robena, I think that I fell in love with my shot of the egret, too. I taught critical thinking to young college students for many years, and willful ignorance was an important topic that I see all around me, every day. I might have been a bit heavy-handed on myself (unless I’m wiggling out here), but those blown highlights were there right in front of me the whole time and I just didn’t want to see them. Either way, my desire for the image to work got in the way of my better judgement, and all of you good folks kindly, and encouragingly, set me straight! And also encouraged me to continue dabbling with the image, to see what more I may be able to save. It’s all a valuable learning experience for me, and I’m really enjoying being a member of NPN!
