Black-bellied Whistling Duck

[Alfred Forns]

From this morning while doing ospreys, had one fly by form these little flying bullets. Just had that one chance and with not the best light, happy to get one !! .. on the boat you need to hand hold !!

Processing these birds with a blue sky is interesting, don't do any shadow/highlight or sharpening to avoid halos around the bird. Processing was minimal, looks fine but alway worry about the outline.. how does it look?

Comments welcome and much appreciated

Canon 7D
500 f4.0 IS
f 5.0 1/2000 sec
ISO 500
Manual exp
HH

[Ann Fiske]

Hi Al,
I really enjoy all your posts. Nice detail, wing position, and eye contact here. I keep thinking he's actually moving across the frame, so that must be good.:)

Ann

[Deborah Hanson]

I am seeing a small halo around the bird. Usually I attribute it to over sharpening on my photos but you commented that you didn't do any sharpening.
I do like the intent look. The white ring around the eye and the feather detail in the wings - nicely captured.
Deb

[Dave Leroy]

When I tip the monitor back there is a slight halo and thanks for the tip about blue sky. I had not realized that.

They do look like bullets. I like the wind position and a really nice profile shot.

[Alfred Forns]

Thanks guys that is what I thought, good idea on the flipping Deborah !!!

btw reworked the image three times and cam up with same ... and usually halos will come form sharpening (most often) but also from running shadow/highlight !!!

[Lance Peters]

Hi Al - I often wonder if save for web is the culprit in relation to the Halo's??
I see the halo mentioned.
Love the detail - great wing position and the exposure is just spot on.
:)

[Deborah Hanson]

Thanks for information regarding other reason for halo-ing. I always assumed I had sharpened too much or that the in-camera sharpening was going to far.

Deb

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Lance I don't think the reduction for web could be the culprit, I thought that it would reduce quality etc like everyone else until I realized the images Artie uses for his newsletter average 45kb ..that is tiny !! ... and have never seen a halo in one of them !!

[Bill Dix]

Hi Al. You caught him at the perfect moment as he flew past you, with great upturned wings and good detail. Halo discussion is interesting -- I can't offer any other suggestions as to what might have caused it if you did neither USM or S/H. I have sometimes - but not always - had some success with selecting just the BG, refining the edge by expanding the selection by several px, and then running the clone tool quickly around the edge of the bird in the BG layer to remove the halo. But that's more PP than some would want to do, and it doesn't always produce the best results. I'll be interested in seeing what others have to say.

[Dave Mills]

Hi Al,Halo aside you did an excellent job with the image. Good wing position,lighting,detail and positioning in the frame. They are fast but you nailed it...

[Oscar Zangroniz]

Saw the same guy last week at the lake. Will have to see if it's worth posting. Like the eye contact and details.