Muscovy Duck

[Sharna Lee]

I went to the local pond today to do a little shooting. I had a little luck with these Muscovy Ducks as they sat sunning themselves. This first one is with it's head close up. I cloned out the ducks back so it's just the head and neck here. I wanted a close up of his face. :p

Canon 40D
Canon 28-135
Manual Exposure
f/11
1/200 ss
ISO 400
@135mm
Handheld

[carole wiley]

I like your duck, never seen one. I like the crop and the colors. If anything, I might have opted for less dof, hoping to get a blurred background. The color would have complimented the color of the duck.

[Sharna Lee]

Yeah. You're probably right about the DOF. But I wanted a nice sharp image too.
I think maybe an f/8 or so would have been ok. I'm going out again tomorrow. I'm taking the "big gun" with me. hehehe
and may switch to the 85 prime on the XTi. As it was I had the 75-300 non IS and most of the pictures from that camera came out blurred or not sharp enough.

[Maxis Gamez]

Hi Sharna,

Excellent job with the cloning. I would like to see a little more head turn and eye contact but I think you did well with the exposure.

[Lana Hays]

Sharna
I look at the DOF this way......you can always blur a BG but you can't add back the detail lost in too little DOF. If you had been able to get lower I think that you would have been able to get a smoother BG. Do wish for the head turn. Nice detail of an "interesting" (I hate to call any duck ugly) duck.