Reddish Egret

I like the casual, leaning pose Hilke. The bird seems a bit soft to me and for my tastes it's also a little tight on top and left.

This site is here for us to learn from so I will help by saying first that I agree with Ron on the crop. I have had to learn to "loosen up "on my crops as well and I learned that here. The bird does also look soft to me but looks more like a very large bit of cropping? Anyway nice pose you caught.

Ditto what Ron said.

I also agree with Ron D on this one Hilke. I really like the water and the bird, but it is a bit too tight. Backing off on the crop will help the bird look better as well.

Hilke,

I like the pose, the water in the setting and the profile view of the egret's face.

The bird however seems soft and the colors do not appear natural. The comp is a bit too tight for me.

With the lighting you seemed to have had I probably would have used positive not negative compensation, which may have made the water a touch bright, but that could have been brought down in post processing.

Thanks for all your comments! Very helpful. This was cropped from large image. Unfortunately the bird was backlit and I accidentally set the EV at -1 instead of +1. I realized my mistake shortly after and set the EV correctly. Because of the dark colors the image of the bird ended up very grainy and minimizing the graininess made it soft. Good learning opportunity!