GREAT EGRET - COURTSHIP DISPLAY


Posted by James McIntyre on Mon Aug 25, 2003 12:56 pm

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Title: GREAT EGRET - COURTSHIP DISPLAY
Photographer: James McIntyre
Date: April, 2000
Location: St. Augustine, FL
Equipment: Canon EOS-3/EF 600 mm F/4L IS USM/Gitzo 1548 + Wimberley Head/Fuji Provia 100F
Evaluative Metering: 0

This beautiful male egret posed on top of this flowering tree (don't know what kind), trying to attract a lady friend. At least once per minute, he would stretch his neck and throw his head up and back. He never got lucky while I was there. :(

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by OriolesFan on Mon Aug 25, 2003 1:13 pm
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Beautiful image of an interesting display! Hopefully he had better luck after you left for the day.

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by Heather Forcier on Mon Aug 25, 2003 1:15 pm
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Great display shot! I love how you have all the tips of the plumes and have a great background. Well done! :)
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by Michael Eckstein on Mon Aug 25, 2003 2:14 pm
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Excellent display shot. Nice separation between feathers and backround. Some hot spots on body on my monitor. Thanks for sharing.
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by Wayne Nicholas on Mon Aug 25, 2003 2:23 pm
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Love the pose and the BG. It may be my monitor, but I am getting a couple of hot spots on the bird, also.
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by Sandy Mossberg on Mon Aug 25, 2003 2:24 pm
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A lovely capture, James, with the bird positioned nicely.

Here are my critiques: (1) The head is a bit soft. USM might help. (2) The whites are hot over most of the bird. Evaluative metering at zero will not expose this bird properly. To expose for the highlights with the Canon system you would have needed -2/3 to -1 1/3. (3) A strong green cast is present. Much of this aberration can be corrected in PS, except for the tips of the plumes.

I hope you do not mind my commentary.
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by TSparger on Mon Aug 25, 2003 3:37 pm
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This is a great shot. I believe it is one of my favorite egret pictures.
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by James McIntyre on Mon Aug 25, 2003 4:00 pm
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Sandy and all:

Thanks for your helpful comments.

The hot spots are due to my trying to optimize the picture in Photoshop for making fine art prints. The bird appeared much grayer in the original pic, which was shot in soft light. EV = 0 was correct for that condition. I lightened the egret in PS to try to simulate bright sunlight. It prints beautifully on textured fine art paper and has actually won some awards in juried nature photography shows.

The picture was already sharpened with Nik Sharpener Pro and is tack sharp in my large prints. Unfortunately it softened up considerably when I resampled down to make the much smaller JPEG file for the web. I'll have to work some more on finding the best way to make good web pics from my very large print files. "What's good for the goose may not be good for the gander." Suggestions welcome.

I see no strong green cast on my calibrated ViewSonic monitor, nor in the prints made with custom profiles. The original scan, made with a Nikon LS-2000 and IT8 calibrated Silverfast software, still had bluish tinges here and there, which I removed by selectively desaturating in PS. Also, I converted the color space from Adobe RGB 1998 to sRGB when making the web pic and some of the plumes now look slightly greener than in the original (as expected due to the gamut clipping), but this is not the major effect you describe.

Remember too that these white birds are not immaculate and their plumage may be stained by the water in which they feed and other unmentionable material. That's certainly the case on the underbelly of this bird.

Regards,
Jim
 

by Paula G on Mon Aug 25, 2003 4:09 pm
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Stunning composition and pose in spite of the apparant lack of detail in the whites. I am sure it must look quite exquisite on your prints.
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by AlexC on Mon Aug 25, 2003 7:28 pm
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I hate to do this but I must agree with Sandy as well!!!!
Still and evocative pose of a bird drunk with hormones!!!
Congrats!! 8)
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by Juli Wilcox on Mon Aug 25, 2003 9:28 pm
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I think the composition is outstanding! When I shot film and scanned the images using Provia film and IT8 calibrated Silverfast software, I very often had some color corrections to make even tho' the Silverfast is some of the most advanced on the market. In this image, as presented, detail is lost in the whites and as noted, there is a bit of softness. When downsizing, many people use USM 100 Amount/ 0.2 Radius/ 0 Threshold for these small jpg files and that is applied after resizing and immediately prior to saving for web.
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by James McIntyre on Mon Aug 25, 2003 10:46 pm
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Juli Wilcox wrote:In this image, as presented, detail is lost in the whites and as noted, there is a bit of softness. When downsizing, many people use USM 100 Amount/ 0.2 Radius/ 0 Threshold for these small jpg files and that is applied after resizing and immediately prior to saving for web.
Thanks for those tips Julie. I will try 'em out on the next image I submit, or perhaps see what Nik Sharpener can do. But I don't want to spend an inordinate amount of time optimizing pics for the web, which are 'here today, gone tomorrow'. My primary aim is to make exhibition-quality, fine-art prints and to supply local Utah wildlife biologists, conservationists, educators, etc. with decent pics they can use in their work.

In response to AlexC, please refer to my detailed reply to Sandy's remarks.

Jim
 

by Juan E. Bahamon on Tue Aug 26, 2003 12:26 am
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James:

One think may help when you downsize for web purpose is to interpolate bilinear instead of bicubic. Great picture, a great egret displaying nuptial plumage is one my nemesis. Thanks for sharing.
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by Greg Downing on Tue Aug 26, 2003 1:20 pm
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Agree with the rest. Nice action and comp!
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