Ruddy Duck displaying and making bubbles

[Bruce Enns]

Hi all, After several tries, I managed to get a sharp image of a Ruddy Duck displaying (they stretch their neck up and then beat their breast with the bottom of their bill), and making bubbles. I suspect, but am not sure that the bubbles are created by the action of the bill beating air out of the wet breast feathers. If someone knows how the bubbles are created please let me know. Shot at Elizabeth Lake Nature Sanctuary in Cranbrook, British Columbia on June 20.

Canon 50D, 500mm f/4 IS with 1.4x II, 1/400s, f/5.6, ISO 400, +1.33EV, Gitzo tripod and BWG-HD II gimbal head

C & C much appreciated. Thanks for looking!

Cheers!
Bruce

[Aidan Briggs]

Unique pose, and I like the blue bill. There is some noise in the blacks though, and I would selectively boost the contrast in the eye.

Keep them coming.

[Kim Rollins]

In my view this is a very good image. Good exposure and composition. Bird is setting right to.
Well done.

What seems to be noise is in part the way it has its feathers bristled so as to have the tips toward the film plane I think so noise is not an issue as I see it here. However a bit of mid-tone contrast adjustment on a layer with blending mode set to luminosity would bring marked improvement I think so USM at about 11/33/0 does this -

repost -
http://upload.pbase.com/image/114167923/original.jpg

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

I feel noise IS an issue and it's evident on the tail feathers, which don't appear to have that bristly, fuzzy look that the head plumage possesses. I do like the pose very much and would crop the space above by half for my taste.

Back to the noise, how was your histogram? At ISO400 noise should be less than visible? Or is it a 50D issue even when shot to the right?

[Kiran Poonacha]

Too good.. what ac colourful bird... lovely natural moment captured... TFS

[Bruce Enns]

Thanks for your comments everyone. The histogram was good and exposed to the right. Noise is not an issue with the 50D at ISO 400. I traced the noise issue back to a couple of processing mis-steps...both of which were intended to bring out a bit more detail in the blacks, but mostly resulted in increased noise. Here is a re-worked image, that I think also addresses the eye and midtone contrast comments.

Thanks again!
Bruce

[ChasMcRae]

I like the repost because all I saw as a problem was the black noise.
I have seen this bird in action in Calgary area ,but never been able to catch it. Love the bubbles.
In the old slide days we let the blacks go black without trying to get detail like we do now with digital, but not always possible.
Chas.

[Bruce Enns]

Thanks Chas! I guess this is a pretty clear example of when to leave the blacks black. I have to travel a couple of hours to see them, but they are always worth it. They are a bit of a comical duck. I have some other images where I would swear the duck was thinking "Man, look at me! I am just the coolest duck in the pond!"

Cheers!
Bruce