Egret reflection

[Infinite Monkey]

I generally shoot landscapes but sometimes bump into wildlife shots that I can't pass up. I got this shot of an egret with the reflection of bird, rocks and sky in a pool at his feet. What I thought was funny was that the reflected image, set against the reflected sky, almost was nicer than the actual bird against the rock background. I'd like to get some feedback on how I might have improved the original shot, given the busy background, without lessening the impact of the reflection.



I also then flipped the image upside down and did a crop of the reflection only. I'd love to get feedback on what I've done with that and whether the cropped image could be improved or if it is sufficient to stand on its own merits.


Here's the Exif data from the original shot:

Camera Nikon D80
Exposure 0.002 sec (1/500)
Aperture f/5.6
Focal Length 50 mm
ISO Speed 400
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash No Flash

Thanks for any time and thought you bring to this.

[TartanLenscap]

Hi!

I like the idea, but I feel that without reference to the actual bird, the mirror image looks just like a normal bird with a strange effect over the photo (the rocks in the water).

What I would've tried would be to use a lens with a larger aperture: f/2.8 or lower for example. This should've isolated the bird from the detailed background which spoils the original photo.
With a nice brown bokeh and the sharp bird and rock, it would've contrasted nicely with the reflection with the blue sky.

Cropping the new image would be the next challenge!

Hope my comment has helped!

Kind regards.

[Infinite Monkey]

Thanks, Tartan. I agree that a faster lens would have helped. I'd worry, though, that the narrower DOF might have left the reflection out of focus or at least softer. As is, the contrast between the nice blue sky in the reflection versus the unfortunate harshness of the rock background to the actual bird presented a challenge that I'm not sure I was up to. I see a lot here that I'd like to like but wind up feeling frustrated by thinking that there was a good shot here but that I didn't figure out how to best take advantage of it.

[FDCPR]

First off, I really like the reflection and the background doesn't bother me at all.
What the photo needs is a different crop to get the bird out of the center. Try a crop with the bird somewhere around the 1/3 point on the right side of the frame. This will give the bird room to look into the frame and be a much more eye pleasing image. If you have the software and capability you should try to tone down the white of the bird itself. It is over exposed, but the reflection is perfect so you would have to work in layers to either combine two different processed images or use a mask to make the changes.
Having a different lens helps sometimes, but learning to get the most from what you have is more important. Trust me when I say that no matter how long or fast a lens is, when shooting birds everyone wishes for something longer or faster.

[Infinite Monkey]

Thanks for the feedback, FDCPR. I agree that I'd be happier with the bird not centered as it is. As to the actual bird being overexposed, you're right. I was trying so hard to make sure that the reflection was right that I lost sight of blowing out those highlights. I'll try doing a local edit to see if I can bring back some of those highlights without losing details in the reflection.

I did a crop just of the reflection that must have broken some of the rules when I posted it here as it seems to have been taken down. The crop has the image of the bird well out of center but, unfortunately, headed out of frame rather than into it. I'm not sure if it works at all as a stand alone image, as it loses the reflection idea completely and just becomes an odd shot of an egret. Here's a link to it on Flickr which I hope doesn't violate any rules. I'd be curious as to what you think of it.

Reflection of an Egret | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Thanks for your input.