Another Sun Day Driver Heading Into the Light

[bulldurham]

Different side of the lake, slightly earlier.

 

[Photosensitive]

Lovely

 

[WesternGuy]

Very nice, but I am thinking that the bird actually looks a little overexposed as I cannot see any detail in the feathers around the head and neck even at the larger size.

WesternGuy

 

[bulldurham]

I toned it down as far as it would go...not totally white blown but dang close. I'll go back and run a different lum mask and see if I can bring it down a bit.

 

[jcdeboever]

Dang, that's nice.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

 

[WesternGuy]

I toned it down as far as it would go...not totally white blown but dang close. I'll go back and run a different lum mask and see if I can bring it down a bit.

If it is fully blown out, then you probably won't be able to get it back. Not sure what you do in the field, but this is where I find adjusting the exposure using my histogram and exposure compensation works well for me - maybe +1/3 to +1 on the EC scale. I find that white birds can be hard to photograph and I always have to experiment as the background can affect your exposure quite a bit, some times...and then sometime you just have to wing it (pardon the pun) .

WesternGuy

 

[LarryLomona]

Great.

 

[bulldurham]

I went back and looked at the exif data and I was +.7 EC because I had been shooting some Buffleheads in a much shadier area. That was probably too much for the amount of leading edge light the Egret was getting. Non recoverable highlights methinks.

 

[WesternGuy]

I went back and looked at the exif data and I was +.7 EC because I had been shooting some Buffleheads in a much shadier area. That was probably too much for the amount of leading edge light the Egret was getting. Non recoverable highlights methinks.

You are probably right. Can you post the histogram? I am not sure how to get to it off the posting, or even if that is possible. If some of it is flush up against the right side, then this suggests that you have blown highlights that may not be recoverable.

WesternGuy

 

[dannylightning]

very nice..

 

[FITBMX]

Wonderfully sharp!

 

[bulldurham]

I was able to bring the whites/highlights down in the raw editor but they were still too white.

 

[bulldurham]

I am redoing in using some Luminosity masks to see if I can get it down a bit more.

 

[bulldurham]

Not the same shot but was done several seconds earlier is different light, but EXIF data is about the same and I was able to recover more of the highlights.

"Reflecting on the Day"

 

[Taveuni]

I think they are all gorgeous images (the first one "Sun Day Driver" probably being my favourite).

I've only very recently joined this forum and the quality of wildlife images, especially birds is very, very good.
There are some wonderfully sharp shots with amazing detail. This series of the egret go a step further and go from technical brilliance to poetic and artistic brilliance.
I do think a little too much emphasis is being placed on the hot spots or absolute definition of each feather.
To me, the combination of lighting effects are the essence of the shots; backlighting, the dance of reflected light etc.
The fact is, this type of lighting is high in contrast even to the naked eye so I do think you've captured the moments extremely well and rendered them well also.
Great stuff!