Red eye on a dark green morning - Common loon

[Randy Stout]

This fellow was imaged several weeks ago on a northern Michigan lake. It was 5:49 AM, so things still dark on the lake. At those times it really does seem like your are enveloped in a quiet green world.

D4 600VR f/5.0 1/640s ISO 1000 Pedestal mounted in the bottom of my little boat "Loonie Too"

Post: Minor crop for comp and leveling, selective sharpening, cleaned a few spots in the water.

More DOF for the bill would be nice, but I thought the eye stole the show. The light band on the neck comes from reflection off the water.

Advice and comments always appreciated.

Cheers

Randy

[Sandy Witvoet]

Hi Randy.... you are right.... the eye is simply mesmerizing! Water droplets are great and love the green "misty" feel to this image too. Also agree a tiny more DOF on the bill would be nice, but, is there something "going on" with the upper portion of this guy's bill? There are two light spots and a rather odd "edge" which make it look like a piece of the bill is missing? Or it may be an optical illusion combined with my need for new contact lenses...

[Frank Schauf]

Perfect, with great eye contact.

[vishaljadhav]

The eye looks superb and the colour is just very beautiful, i love the way the water is coloured makes the bird so more interesting to the eye
Drops of water on the bird makes it look special
i am still pulling my hair due to the beak, its the first thing in front

[gary ellwein]

Randy, your loons are always a treat. The eye, delicate feather detail of the head and water droplets are most pleasing. I agree that more depth of field for the bill would have helped. Reviewing some of my common loon images, I'm struck by the significant extension of the lores and nasal tuft on to the dorsum of the bill. Your image accentuates this feature.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Randy I like this one and the DOF with the FP on the eye looks good to me, with the slight head turn too. If this is not FF, then if you have it, the subject smaller in frame with more space to the left might work too? Like the bow wave, gives motion to the shot, although looking on the laptop, the whites look a little hot (?) toning them down a fraction might help, if I'm right? I also wonder if adding a Graduate blend at the foot to bring a bit more depth to the image, but NOT a Gradient, two totally different treatments which one or two people here get confused with.

TFS
Steve

[HadiAnsari]

Hi Randy.I like this one and the DOF with the FP on the eye looks good to me

[Steve Wasson]

Great shot, Randy! Can you say more about your pedestal mount? What kind of boat are shooting from?

[Satish Ranadive]

Every thing has been said about this wonderful portrait. Wonderful red eye you have captured here,Randy Sir.
Love the frame.

Regards,
Satish.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Randy, excellent low angle from your boat, and love the HA in this. You have certainly nailed the exposure in the soft light, exquisite eye, and the droplets spread over the head puts this over the top. I can see detail in the whites. It looks like you were pretty close, so not sure if you had more light, that you would have achieved more DOF by stopping down.

[Randy Stout]

Thanks everyone for the comments.

I was about 18' away, so with this body and lens, my dof was very shallow (1.08"). Going to smaller f/stop would certainly have helped some, but at trade off in other areas. When I have a stationary subject, like a perched bird, I will often focus at various point , eye, base of bill, etc. to find the best distribution of the available dof. Loons however are not stationary, and this fellow was coming right at me.


I could have pushed the ISO up significantly, for more dof flexibility, but I don't like noise.

Cheers

Randy

[nrohrbacker]

Randy, I see how you were able to pull out the white details on the breast vs my pic. Curious, did yours come SOOC this way, or did you need to tease them out in post?

[Randy Stout]

Niel:

I used a bit of detail extractor to try and give some texture/detail to the whites. I had used a whisper of fill flash because it was so dark, and the whites were slightly overexposed in camera.

Randy

[mohammad reza shahab]

excellent low angle,detail and Water colour.