Hooded Merganser drake

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

This shot is an important one for me as it is my first foray into long tele. My new 400 f/5.6 with 1.4x on 40D. 1/400 f/8. iso 640. hand-held. Manual focussing( taped the right 3 pins but AF still very inconsistent with 40D. need to try a non reporting tamron or kenko TC I guess).

USM on bird with an exta round on the eye, NR on BG. Catchlight removed from the eye.

These dudes arrived here in Dallas( and fortunately to ponds very close to my home) recently. They are still very camera-shy and hard to approach. love this bird.....but getting it in flight is a significant challenge. speedy is an understatement.

All critiques welcome. Thx in advance.

KD

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

BTW...no USM on the reflection...which is the right thing to do, right? esp. since its not as sharp as the bird in the first place.

KD

[Mital Patel]

"Maximum Effect" i would say. the piece of art by god. you have done fantastic job with this and with your new lense. would love to see the tech's for sure. bang on expo, HA and a perfect sharpness. the corwn hairy details came out very well ... overall a fantastic perfect image.

A round of NR over the selective BG would make the effect of waves more lovely.

[Ben Egbert]

Lovely, a wall hanger for sure. I can't see a thing I would change here.

[Randy Stout]

Kaustubh:

I think you are going to like the longer lens!

Lovely bird, good hood position, head angle, reflection.

The whites on the breast, shoulder and front of the hood are really lacking in detail, and although they only show some mild blown areas in PS, I suspect that they were overexposed and then pulled back in post.

These guys are tough in anything but the softest light. On the D700, I often shoot with -.7 to -1.00 in anything but soft light to keep from toasting the whites. The Canons meter diff., but still, will need some comp. for the whites.

I agree about not sharpening the reflection.

Cheers

Randy

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Thanks Randy...I agree that I toasted the whites in camera. I had my comp. set up for Gadwalls and Wigeons in the same pond. The mergansers swim away (or worse fly off) rather quickly. But a jogger came by driving this one towards me. I just had to get the shot in the excitement. This is the only sharp shot I got.

KD

[Doug Brown]

Love the alert pose, the nice water with reflection, and the sharpness. Whites look a little cooked in places, but detail in the blacks is quite good. Pretty darn sharp for manual focus on a non-IS lens at 560mm and only 1/400. What exposure mode did you use? Underexposing by 1/3 to 2/3 is what I would normally expect for birds such as a Hoodie.

[Randy Stout]

Kaustubh:

You did the right thing. Push the button when you have the opportunity. Sometimes there are problems with exposure, etc., but if you don't push it, you get nothing!

When you are really comfortable with your setup, you will be dialing in EC without even looking, as the bird presents itself. 3 clicks right, 3 clicks left, whatever it takes!

Randy

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Danny, I use evaualtive. always. This one did not have any compensation actually. It was morning light and I had the comp at 0 to get the shutter speed (plus that was good enough for the middle-toned gadwalls and wigeons). had braced the lens to a tree actually. But since this was my first day at such long focal length, I did not want to risk going below 1/400. And I hate anything above iso 640 on 40D. f/8 was the widest I could go.

I am hoping they get more "settled" here as the winter progresses....giving me better opportunities.

KD

[Doug Rodda]

Terrific shot, especially with that lens/TC/SS combo, love the foreground background and the whites look fine to me.

[David Fletcher]

Lovely shot Kaustubh. Whites mentioned, but you got it!!! well done.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Congrats on your new lens - I'm sure you will enjoy it! Good looking specimen! These guys are very skittish here too, so I can appreciate the excitement of having one accidentally pushed close to you by a jogger :-) Although he is swimming away he gave you just enough of a head turn to make it work.

Whites mentioned - especially bothersome is the bright white reflection on the flank. I'm finding the lime green streak at top distracting, and there is some colour noise close to the bill's reflection. The details on the forehead and crest look great. I would be interested to see how "bad" the catchlight was for you to completely eliminate it?

[Ray Rozema]

Fabulous image lucky to have someone push him toward you. whites as metioned I would be curious to see it with the catchlight. TFS

[denise ippolito]

Beautiful details and water. Great getting the reflection also. Whites mentioned. Congrats on the new lens. Well done.

[Harshad Barve]

KD
beautiful image , lovely compo and reflections , techs well coverd here
Big congratulations for new gear
TFS

[Stu Bowie]

KD, congrats on the new lens, and Ive always found these guys interesting with their peculiar shaped head. I actually find the whites ok, and well exposed on the blacks too. Great reflection, and interesting texture on the water. Well captured.

[Betsie Storm]

Happy new lens, worthy first post from this lens, everything else already covered- I like it as it stands.

[Daniel Belasco]

Excellent results with your new lens--congrats.
The 1.4 with the 5.6 won't focus consistantly on the 40d with taped pins. The combo works with the 20d but not the 40d. Some say it's the cross tpe center spot doesn't have enough light at f8 to work on the 40d. Other 1.4 converters won't work any better. I always found the cheaper Tamron non=pro, thus no pins to report to work best with 5.6 lenses. But starting with the 40d, you were better off not trying the 1.4 with a 40d and 5.6 lens.
BUT you can always manual focus and you did a great job here.
Love the bg also and yes these guys are shy.

[John Ippolito]

Excellent detail on this lovely subject. Lots and lots of texture and colors that compliment the BG. Love the colors of the disturbed water in front of the bird. If you can fix up the couple of hot white spots it would make it even better. Well done.

[Brian Sartor]

Congrats! Wonderful image of a beautiful subject, and one that is difficult to get close to. The water looks great, very nice reflection, excellent details and lovely alert pose!

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Thanks all for the feedback. Really appreciate it.

KD