Egrets in Breeding Plumage

[Chrisclick]

Grabbed a few shots today of Egrets with the new season breeding plumage. As you probably know, for the rest of the year they are just...... well, Egrets.

The beak and eyes also change colour. I'm yet to determine if it is the males or the females, or both, that exhibit the change. Wikipedia only mentions 'adults'.

This is the first time trying the Tinypic upload option, they should be able to be viewed larger in Lytebox.

The first shot is a touch soft, I thought I'd leave it in because of the wing position.









CC always welcome.

[Shadowman]

Nice captures.

[chauncey]

I'm liking the birds positions in all the images.
I am wondering if you have processed the images as you have some overexposed spots,
especially the top part of the wing in #3. Dropping the RGB numbers to 245 would help.

Exposure on white, and black, subjects is a neat trick.

[Chrisclick]

Hi William, thanks for having a look. Yes, there is a loss of detail in the upper far wing of #3 and also on the same wing in #2.

After some examination, the highest value that I can find across either wing is 242. It occurs in the red channel of #3 and the blue channel of #2. Checking with the LAB scale, the highest value for 'L' that I could find is 96.59 in either case.

Still, there is very little detail in those areas. I have reduced the white values in those areas and reposted here. The maximum value that I can find now in either of the offending wings, is 219. However, I can still find a 242 in the body of the bird in #2 (which of course, is #1 in the repost), just below the near wing.

Thanks again for taking a look and, for keeping me on my toes! I don't know how I thought they were ready!







Still not perfect..........

Thanks again, William.

[davidedric]

Excellent pictures, I'm much impressed.

Assuming these are cattle egrets, then both sexes get the buff plumage etc.

Dave

[bnnrcn]

Very nice series, the edits look better

[John 2]

Nice set of images Chris. Needed the extra PP suggested by William but I like no. 3 in particular.

[Chrisclick]

Excellent pictures, I'm much impressed.

Assuming these are cattle egrets, then both sexes get the buff plumage etc.

Dave

Hi Dave. Thanks for commenting, and for answering that question for me. Appreciate it! Glad you like the shots.

[Chrisclick]

Very nice series, the edits look better

Thanks Binnur, appreciate you looking. Yes, they are acceptable now.

[Chrisclick]

Nice set of images Chris. Needed the extra PP suggested by William but I like no. 3 in particular.

Thank you, John. Yes, I don't know what I was thinking! Appreciate you dropping by.

[chauncey]

Oh yeah...that works just fine.

[IzzieK]

Both sets looks good to me from here, Chris...I couldn't have done any better for my BIFs yesterday...these are WoW! for me...I just wish you could have had better skies...so I can criticize them...

[Chrisclick]

...I just wish you could have had better skies...so I can criticize them...

Yes, me too Izzie. I'm getting tired of bland blue skies. I love clouds in the BG, especially little puffy defocused ones! They add so much more character and interest to a shot. I'll keep my eye out.