Goosander

[Richard Unsworth]

Bird at 82 m distant on 100-400, so crop heavy but not resized.

Canon 40D ISO 400 f 7.1, Ev -.33, SS 1/1250

My first time to see this lovely duck

[Richard Stern]

Hi Richard,

Nice pose of an attractive bird, with good head angle and wing position - looks like he's about to take off. I like the colors in the water. Unfortunately though, the whites are "hot" and lacking detail, and the whole bird to me has a rather "plasticky" look, with lack of detail except in the bill. The catchlight looks a bit over-bright. Were you using flash? I suppose some of these issues are due to the heavy crop - 82m. is a long way, even for a large bird.

Richard

[Richard Unsworth]

Hi Richard

Had a rethink on this and can see what you mean, probably to do with the big distance ,

I will certainly have a go at reprocessing to see if I can improve the hot areas, though I thought it looked reasonable on my monitor; crop should have no effect on IQ etc as pic was not resized

thanks for giving your critique which is always appreciated

I really liked the pose etc and I am disappointed not to have got a lot closer, these are certainly pretty birds!
Richard

[Gary Esman]

Very cool looking duck. Like the wing flap. The whites are hot but could be a fantastic learning experience. Hopefully you will see him again. Do you have your highlight warning turned on in the camera? It looks as though the light was rather harsh by the direction of the shadows, which certainly did not work in your favor. TFS

Gary.

[Richard Unsworth]

Hi Gary

reposting

yep highlights were on, as always and no blinkies on the shot.

I, cough put them there, lol when using curves, set white dropper without checking alt and viola ...
Over zealous with the sharpening too methinks, trying to correct softness at long range with this lens at 400mm. I must get closer but nature doesn't cooperate lol

hope you find the repost an improvement

thanks for helping

Richard