Great Egret, Miyagawa River, Takayama, Gifu, Japan
OM System OM-1 Mark II with M.Zuiko 40-150 F2.8 lens at 150 mm.
ISO 200 (auto), aperture priority, 1/640, f/6.3, back-button AF.
WB Cloudy (temp 6500, tint +10), Lightroom Classic 14.5.1.
Focus: Bird AF, distance 22.14 m (72.6').
The morning market in Takayama, Gifu, Japan run along the Miya River (Miyagama) for about half a mile. Aside from the myriad of small shops and stands and 500 or so people present, the river teamed with Great Egrets, Spot-billed Ducks, and apparently, bird food. This Great Egret stood like a statue resting and watching the river for edible possibilities.
Great Egrets (and other white birds) always represent photographic challenge, especially when backlit. Additionally, the lowest river bank was closed for flood repair, so I had to shoot from well above eye level.
For development, white balanced was changed from as-shot to cloudy (to better reflect actual conditions) and exposure level was increased slightly. At ISO 200, noise reduction is unnecessary. The egret's body, beak, and eye were masked and processed separately. The body levels were adjusted to reduce the contrast between backlight and shadow. The beak and eye luminance and saturation were moderately increased to improve presence. Image clarity increased globally. Finally, the image was cropped, moving the egret off center to improve presentation.
5 comments posted
Bud Ralston
Hello Scott - I like your image a lot. The egret is sharp and the feathers show great detail. I like the rock and the clarity in the water. My only suggestion would be to crop and tighten to bring greater emphasis on the bird, water, and rock. I took the liberty of fooling around with it to give you an example of what I am talking about. Posted: 12/10/2025 23:30:51
Larry Treadwell
How well I know your plight shooting white birds on bright days. Its an issue I face in Florida all the time. Still you did a good job with the capture. My first thought upon seeing this was the eye level issue, but you explained that situation. But I would suggest cropping a bit off the top---that is a lot of empty water to leave at the top. The third thing that came to mind is more likely just my preference. I much prefer this herons and egrets with more of a profile look, just because with their eyes on the sides of their heads a straight on shot just, for me at least, looks odd. Bit that is a maker's choice. Posted: 12/12/2025 20:26:30
Butch Mazzuca
Scott - we've all been in situations where we were unable to get the preferred "eye or ground-level" perspective. To minimize that issue I chose to crop in and focus on what I found the most visually interesting part of the image, i.e., the subject, the rock it's standing on and the ground area while deemphasizing the water, that while essential to the story is also an eye-grabber. I would have liked to move the subject off center as you and Larry have it, but I did not want "half of a pedestal" the subject is standing on. I added texture and clarity and skylight (Color Efex) to the subject, the rock to the surrounding area and then neutralized the whites about 50% also in Color Efex Pro in the Nik Suite. Posted: 12/12/2025 21:39:19
Cindy Marple
Hi Scott, you did a nice job processing this to bring out the best of the detail in the bird. I particularly like what you did with the head details, bringing out the colors of the beak and lores.
Cropping this from the top helps to take away some of the feeling of the high angle- the amount of water on top in Bud's crop looks good to me. I like the whole rock and water to the left of it in your crop. The ripples create a triangle shape against the rock and to me that adds interest to the image.
Nice work exposing this in challenging light conditions. Posted: 12/16/2025 19:25:19
David Kepley
Scott,
I like the concept of the bird on a pedestal. It gives it a statue like feel. I agree with the others that the image could benefit from cropping some of the water from the top. I'd like to see a bit more detail in the feathers, but as Larry mentioned, shooting a white bird on a sunny day is tough! Posted: 12/18/2025 15:12:08
