![Lofty Aspirations]
Most times, Great egrets just stand on one leg and look quite stoic. This one, however, struck a pose that seemed more majestic. The lighting and surroundings made for a good composition.
Anything
Is this a composite: No
D810, 200-500 @450mm, f/5.6, 1/1250, ISO 400
50/50 ACR PS with one dark and one light mask.
For some reason when I click on the thumbnail in the Avian category I just get a very blurred image, but if I click on that image it’s okay. I like the pose and the detail looks good. I like the perch and the background works well to frame the egret. Nice capture.
Tis forum was having some issues this morning when I first posted this. I couldn’t get it to open larger after the post, so I dumped it and reloaded the image again. Seems like it is still having issues.
I do like the pose and head turn. For the most part the detail is excellent but I do see a bit of a greenish cast on the lower chest and belly feathers. I think you could also reduce some of the highlights of the upper chest and get some more detail. But no question; this is a very different and interesting pose.
Took out the color cast and knocked down the highlights but had too brighten it back up a tad, so I did some low opacity burning for needed feather detail.
This much better. You did a great job of increasing the plumage detail on the chest and decreasing the color cast.
I was going to comment on this before, but now I’ll talk about the rework instead. It’s even better. You’ve corrected the issues and improved an already fascinating study. The folded neck is so different to see in a lot of portraits of these guys and there’s great sharpness in the face and beak. Super!
