Hooded Merganser - finally managed to get a bit closer

[Bob DeCroce]

Nikon D7200, Nikkor 600mm f/4 + 1.4X, 1/1600 @ f/7.1 ISO 800

Minimal crop, minor whites and blacks adjustment in PS, Detail Extractor and Tonal Contrast in Color Efex 4

First time posting here....

[Raybel Robles]

Hi Bob,

Welcome to the forum, you have a very nice image here, love the reflection and the details on those black feathers. I think if you could extract a bit more detail on the white in the chest it could even be better. Also a small clockwise rotation is needed i think. Other than that this is a great image. TFS

[Bob DeCroce]

Thank you Raybel. I followed your suggestions here.167924

[Bill Dix]

Welcome, Bob. I've found these guys to be exceedingly tough to get close to. Congratulations for persisting. You might try just a touch more selective sharpening around the area of the eye, forehead and bill. And possibly even more rotation. Often when the water is smooth, you can use the Ruler tool to align the pupil of the bird's eye with it's reflection to get the rotation right; although I'll admit that in this case that might make the background look out of rotation. In any case, a good capture of a difficult bird.

[Bob DeCroce]

Welcome, Bob. I've found these guys to be exceedingly tough to get close to. Congratulations for persisting. You might try just a touch more selective sharpening around the area of the eye, forehead and bill. And possibly even more rotation. Often when the water is smooth, you can use the Ruler tool to align the pupil of the bird's eye with it's reflection to get the rotation right; although I'll admit that in this case that might make the background look out of rotation. In any case, a good capture of a difficult bird.

Thank you much Bill!


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