Posted by Chris Hudson on July 19, 2007 at 6:08 PM
I sat and watch this guy for 2 hours. All the other heron and egret waded along the shore feeding, while this guy flew out and fished as if he was raised by kingfishers. What a great day!!!
Posted by Lance Warley on July 20, 2007 at 7:26 AM
Great shot, Chris. I love snowies.
It looks like you're faced with the same challenge that I have, and probably everyone has, with white birds below the horizon - how to keep the details without making the background too dark. If you shot in raw, you may be able to pull back the details in the head and right wing.
That will, of course, make the background too dark. So the blending begins. I have PSE5, without automated HDR, so I do mine manually with a softedged eraser or with a layer mask and a softedged brush.
I hopped onto your site and looked at some of the pics - real beauties. I plan to go back and look at all of them. Thanks for posting this.
Great action photo. I really like how you were able to frame both the egret and the reflection to produce symmetry.
The whites on the right wing are blown, however. If you shot this RAW, you might be able to go back recover some of detail.
Posted by Chris Hudson on July 20, 2007 at 3:27 PM
Thanks for the comments. I went back and stopped the photo down 1 1/2, which brought some detail back to the right wing, Then I had to adjust the white balance slightly. See what you think.
Posted by Lance Warley on July 21, 2007 at 4:58 PM
It looks like there wasn't eneough data to bring it back...sigh...happens to me too frequently, including this morning. I thought I had a keeper shot of a Great Egret landing in a tree in golden light that was there for maybe 5 minutes, but most of the whites were blown.
Posted by Chris Hudson on July 21, 2007 at 6:54 PM
This is why I joined! I really like this photograph but wanted some comments on it. I really appreciate the advice and the further feedback. Hopefully I will be able to get a shoot like this again and be a little more prepared next time. Thanks again
Discussion
5 repliesIt looks like you're faced with the same challenge that I have, and probably everyone has, with white birds below the horizon - how to keep the details without making the background too dark. If you shot in raw, you may be able to pull back the details in the head and right wing.
That will, of course, make the background too dark. So the blending begins. I have PSE5, without automated HDR, so I do mine manually with a softedged eraser or with a layer mask and a softedged brush.
I hopped onto your site and looked at some of the pics - real beauties. I plan to go back and look at all of them. Thanks for posting this.
Great action photo. I really like how you were able to frame both the egret and the reflection to produce symmetry.
The whites on the right wing are blown, however. If you shot this RAW, you might be able to go back recover some of detail.