High Key Snowy Egret

[Saorsa]

[Manfred M]

Nice, effective shot. There is enough edge contrast to clearly separate the bird from the background. Well done!

[chauncey]

Brian, that is one superior shot. Have you considered adding a little background to the right side, enough to move the eye toward the left. And maybe...some midtone contrast limited to the whites of the bird.

[Saorsa]

I played around with contrast for a while but there isn't a lot of detail in such a white bird and it ends up being rather harsh and noisy. That part of this shot I find satisfactory. The original shot did have more background on the right (actually left, I flipped it). I found it vacant but perhaps there is room for a little more.

This is the original edit resized.



How does this one work. I tilted it a bit to give the look a bit more character and make it less of a mugshot. Cropping then removed the duller parts of the body and put some more white space top right.

[Brownbear]

Hi Brian,

Gorgeous image. Thank you for sharing. I like the last crop best for the interesting composition.

I adore high-key images and this is something I wish to learn to do. I downloaded your image so I could view the histogram. I can see that your histogram is almost all to the right, yet you have retained the natural black of the Egret's beak and eye.

May I ask how you photographed this Egret? Exposed to the right? And how you processed it to achieve/retain the high-key look... Just brief simple points on "how to" would be truly appreciated.

Thank you.

[Saorsa]

Hi Brian,

Gorgeous image. Thank you for sharing. I like the last crop best for the interesting composition.

I adore high-key images and this is something I wish to learn to do. I downloaded your image so I could view the histogram. I can see that your histogram is almost all to the right, yet you have retained the natural black of the Egret's beak and eye.

May I ask how you photographed this Egret? Exposed to the right? And how you processed it to achieve/retain the high-key look... Just brief simple points on "how to" would be truly appreciated.

Thank you.

The photography was actually pretty easy. I took this at the Placida FL fishing pier. There are a lot of birds that fish here too and some of them are moochers looking for leftover (or unprotected) bait. They also use the fishing pier as a high spot to look down into the water for food.

This fellow was standing on the railing looking into the water as I approached. Because of the number of fishermen who are there daily, they are reasonably adapted to human presence but don't like you getting too close. I got about as close as I could, the level head was a sign of alertness to my presence and the bird was now ignoring the water to assess me as a threat. The level head is typical of that in the first shot. There were quite a few clouds that day but it was still bright overcast. I just stooped down and got the white bird sharp against out of focus clouds.

I don't tend to do a lot of post processing. I use Nikon Capture NX (now discontinued) for what little I do. In this case, I wanted to keep the texture of the beak and whatever detail I could keep in the white. So, I just selected the pupil of the eye and used that as my Black Spot. I do that quite often with birds or animals.

Once I had done that I adjusted using levels and curves. I used the center X axis slider to adjust levels and curves to a general level I wanted, set a point around the new middle and then pulled the white side down just a touch which lifted the black side. Then, I added a little USM. I may have increased saturation slightly to bring out the yellow.

[Jeffbridge]

Both good ones...I like #1 though....

[deetheturk]

Very nice Brian,great images!

[Shadowman]

Nicely done.

[Brownbear]

Thank you!

You inspired me to try it and I will post my attempts soon. Lucky you with Egrets just hanging around.

Very helpful and appreciated.

The photography was actually pretty easy. I took this at the Placida FL fishing pier. There are a lot of birds that fish here too and some of them are moochers looking for leftover (or unprotected) bait. They also use the fishing pier as a high spot to look down into the water for food.

This fellow was standing on the railing looking into the water as I approached. Because of the number of fishermen who are there daily, they are reasonably adapted to human presence but don't like you getting too close. I got about as close as I could, the level head was a sign of alertness to my presence and the bird was now ignoring the water to assess me as a threat. The level head is typical of that in the first shot. There were quite a few clouds that day but it was still bright overcast. I just stooped down and got the white bird sharp against out of focus clouds.

I don't tend to do a lot of post processing. I use Nikon Capture NX (now discontinued) for what little I do. In this case, I wanted to keep the texture of the beak and whatever detail I could keep in the white. So, I just selected the pupil of the eye and used that as my Black Spot. I do that quite often with birds or animals.

Once I had done that I adjusted using levels and curves. I used the center X axis slider to adjust levels and curves to a general level I wanted, set a point around the new middle and then pulled the white side down just a touch which lifted the black side. Then, I added a little USM. I may have increased saturation slightly to bring out the yellow.

[Saorsa]

Thank you!

You inspired me to try it and I will post my attempts soon. Lucky you with Egrets just hanging around.

Very helpful and appreciated.

We have lots of white birds hanging out in Florida.

[Brownbear]

Beautiful image... Florida is definitely on my vacation list, and it will be all about the birds.

We have lots of white birds hanging out in Florida.

[jordand]

Well done!

[bnnrcn]

The birds are beautiful and the the shots are great Brian. I especially like #2 and #3 as high key images and #4 is such a nice composition with very nice colours ,reflections and beautiful birds

[NorthernFocus]

Nicely done, Brian. Bringing out detail in those whites is definitely a challenge.

[Mike Buckley]

Very nice, Brian. Great eye (not just the bird's eye but also yours) and execution. I like both compositions.

I use Nikon Capture NX (now discontinued)

Nikon Capture NX2 is still available but could be discontinued virtually any day. It's expected to be discontinued in the next few months. If you like using Capture NX as much as I did, you might want to consider upgrading to CNX2. Doing so has been well worth it to me. However, you would want to make sure you're not going to upgrade your camera or operating system to something not yet released (thus, won't be supported) for at least a couple of years to make the investment worthwhile.

I adjusted using levels and curves.

I strongly urge you to use the same capability built into the LCH Editor's Master Lightness channel. Using the Levels & Curves tool on a color image can change the color; using the LCH Editor won't.

there isn't a lot of detail in such a white bird and it ends up being rather harsh and noisy

Considerably more detail can be achieved without introducing artifacts. One method:

1. In the Picture Control area of the Camera Settings panel, eliminate all in-camera sharpening by changing the sharpening value to zero. (This assumes you're shooting RAW files.)
2. After making your global levels and curve adjustment (using the LCH Editor's Master Lightness channel as recommended above), select the white area of the bird in a new edit step. Use the same tool to apply a strong, reverse S-curve.
3. Copy and paste the above edit step to create a new edit step using the same mask. Change the tool in the new edit step to the Unsharp Mask tool and apply Local Contrast Enhancement. Use a set of parameters at 10, 60 and 0 as a starting point.
4. Copy and paste the above edit step. Using the Unsharp Mask tool again, change the parameters to those that you would normally use but be prepared to back off on the sharpening considerably due to the Local Contrast Enhancement applied in the previous step.

[Saorsa]

I have kept my Capture NX up to date and am at NX 2.4.7 at present. I don't always indicate versions when discussing SW. I also recently got a Nikon 7100 so have updated all the codecs, ViewNX, Transfer, etc.

I will try some of your tips. I actually find Post processing tedious and would rather be out shooting in nature. But, it's a necessary evil.

[Loose Canon]

How does this one work. I tilted it a bit to give the look a bit more character and make it less of a mugshot. Cropping then removed the duller parts of the body and put some more white space top right.

Much better from where I'm sitting Brian.

Very nice shot.