Malard portrait

[Rene Quenneville]

Simple bird, but lots of possibilities for pictures. I was trying to do a tight portrait wit a nice background. With these ducks, the reflection on the green is very difficult to get. This was the best rendreing I got yesterday. The head angle is not perfect but I chose the green reflection instead. Is it too tight? Any insights to improve the picture?

1/1250 s manual mode
f/8
iso 400
300 mm Sigma 100-300 f/4
Nikon D200
fill flash 0 EV

[Randy Stout]

Rene:

As I mentioned in a recent thread with a mallard drake, I find getting a perfectly even green on the head very tough. I think you did well here. I would trade that for the very slight head angle concern here.

The framing works for me, not too tight for a formal portrait.

I might try to boost the contrast on the eye a bit, it seems flat to me.

Cheers

Randy

[Daniel Cadieux]

I agree with Randy's critique. The framing is fine for this type of portrait. Selectively darkening the pupil should give a nice result. I'm finding the water trails on the bill distracting...if you could find an individual that has his bill completely wet you would have the nice deep yellow on the whole bill.

[Bob Malbon]

Rene, Just the eye as Randy stated - everything else is sweet! Bob

[Alan Melle]

Terrific headshot although pretty bright as presented.

[Alfred Forns]

Would work on the eye area and might increase saturation on the bill !! Do like how its reflecting light back to the camera !!! They can look spectacular !!!