Goldeneye

[William Dickson]

Canon 1DX Mk2
f/4 400mm DO Mk2 with 2xiii
f/8
1/320
ISO 5000

We have had really poor weather recently here in Scotland, and with lockdown, which means we cannot travel unless necessary, it's been quite frustrating watching the Goldeneye in the harbour from my window.... I normally wouldn't photograph Goldeneye in such low light, but decided to walk to my usual perch at the harbour...It's only a 5 min walk from the house. I decided to concentrate on the females, as no way, would I be able to get the beautiful colours on the head of the males in poor light. The birds kept their usual distance from me, so I put on the 2x and this female came closest. I have never taken shots at ISO 5000 before, and, to shoot ETTR my SS was down to 1/320..Anyway I took several shots with these settings...HH..ACR, PS2021 and Topaz DeNoise.....When using the Topaz software I never allowed it to sharpen the image, only to DeNoise, and I sharpened in PS. After cropping, this is about 60% of the original file.

Will

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the HA, complimentary colored BG and frosty looking back of the duck. Composition wise I would take some off the bottom but that is personal preference. There are a couple of dust bunnies I would clone out as well. Glad to hear you got out to stretch your legs.

[Dorian Anderson]

Detail on the bird's back - and particularly the associated condenses mist droplets - looks great with the 2X. The face, however, seem unnaturally smooth. I'm curious if you did some local NR or other manipulation on it? Lotta gray around here right now,
so I know the feeling.

[David Roach]

Love the low POV and the details. I love the dreary day feel on this one TFS

[kevin Hice]

Lovely image and the eye pops on this along with the gray water goes well with the colors of the female. Details look great and love the sprinkles of water on the back almost resembles a light dusting of frost. Well done must have been nice to get out for awhile. TFS

[Brian Sump]

Will, you know I believe a great photographer can go out and find some success in most cases. Weather against you, you assembled the necessary gear, went to a trusty spot and made it happen, high ISO or not.

For all those reasons, nice work. Further, you did really well managing the noise and got a solid, low-light frame. The eye is the only place it really stands out for me and I'd wish it was a little less discernible.

All in all, I think you made it successful. Nice work!

[Jonathan Ashton]

She looks good Will, I like the spray on her back, I like the winter dampened colour too.

[Steve Kaluski]

Will, you should have gone to ISO6400 as the camera is a breeze at that ISO range and you would have had a tad more SS, especially with the 2x. Agree on the lack of detail around the eye and to the LHS of the face. You are better off applying NR in ACR at the RAW stage Will to retain IQ, but...

TFS
Steve

[Andreas Liedmann]

HIi Will ... the head turn saved the shot for you .
Love all the fine water droplets on the duck ... adding a lot of interest .
Seems like that the light was not the best .... flat dull grey English weather :bg3:.

Personally I might open up the image a fair bit .... then throwing maybe some " local contrast " into the mix .
Do agree about the partial softness ... maybe TDN has lost its magic :w3 , or need to be used with a more gentle hand . But could happen with any NR software if used too heavy ....

TFS Andreas

[William Dickson]

Thanks for the tips and comments guys....much appreciated....

Will