Critique Style Requested: Standard
The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
I finally made it to the local rookery yesterday. It rained almost every day during nest building season and I missed the prime action of bringing nesting branches, but there was still a little (with little snippets of twigs) yesterday. But I didn’t get anything that added much to the collection so I’ll have to try again. I did like this guy, who was perched in a Redwood apparently keeping an eye on one of the nests in the next tree.
Specific Feedback
All comments welcome! The sun had come out by this time and I had lowered the exposure to try to hang onto the whites, which made the sky too dark.
Technical Details
Tripod with gimbal head – by this time I had worn myself out hand-holding for flight and went to the gimbal with movements loose just for support. I should try the monopod next time out. Should be easy to pick it up to follow flight when the bird gets high. About 20% cropped off the raw file and processed with a linear profile to squeak a little more smooth detail from the whites. Sky lightened with the HSL panel. Into PS for NR (hardly needed) and a little burning and cloning for details in the tree.
1 Like
I like this photo. The eye is sharp and good feather detail. Despite the sun lighting the bird, you have handled the whites nicely. I have also found using linear profiles to be a nice trick to recover bright and dark areas. One tiny nit pick… There is a green area just below the Egret’s feet that is probably distant tree out of focus, that grabs my eye. I wonder if cloning some branches there would be a possibility
I like this, Diane. It’s a great pose, with excellent detail. You did a wonderful job on the whites. I do see the green blob under the bird-almost looks like a vertical feather, but I think it’s a processing artifact that somehow sneaked in.
A really wonderful image here, Diane. The crisp & clean white feathers are perfect on the Egret. The overall focus of the upper body, head, and eye is stunning as well. I really like the bit of framing with the distant tree in the BG and the branch the Egret is perched upon too… 
Hi Diane, nice sharp view of the egret with fine exposure. I also like the subject placement in the frame. I’m okay with the out of focus tree in background. A well done image.
Thanks, @Richard_Duckworth, @Dennis_Plank, @Paul_Breitkreuz and @Allen_Sparks! The area that caught some eyes is just an opening to a BG OOF tree. I darkened it but it’s apparently still obvious. I’ll have a crack at cloning it tomorrow. I agree it looks odd.
Very detailed in the whites and the sharpness is excellent. The blue sky and greenery provide additional color to the scene… The horizontal branch provides a strong basal element to the comp. Well done…Jim
Diane, it looks like he posed for you nicely. I love the fan of long feathers he has spread out (breeding plumage, I think). I think the oof tree helps frame him in nicely. Can’t think of anything to improve the shot. Well done.
Thanks, @Jim_Zablotny and @Shirley_Freeman! I love what I can do with whites these days! I need to do some repair work that area under the feet.
2 Likes
