Americam Wigeon

[Peter Farrell]

One of our winter residents. Taken in Newport News, VA. Mid morning, overcast skies.
Sony A700, 70-400G @400mm, manual f8, 1/800, iso1000, HH. PP in PSE8, levels, curves, usm
I cloned a portion of an oof duck from the ulc and darkened the water.

[WIlliam Maroldo]

Nice job Peter. Glad to see you shooting manual exposure and taking advantage of overcast. You did well on the exposure and detail is pretty good. A lower viewing angle would be better, but it isn't always possible, and this is pretty close. I think you might have been able to get by with a lower Fstop, to get more of a background blur, and upping the shutter-speed might have a helped. regards~Bill

[Dawn Currie]

He looks cold. Love the detail, wish the tail wasn't clipped.

[Ben_Sadd]

The duck looks nice, but I agree that a lower angle would have been good. I wonder if you could bring a little more detail out around the head? Personally I would like to see the bird placed slightly higher in the frame. I find much of the background that takes up the complete upper 50% redundant.

Dawn, the tail is not clipped. You just need to scroll over.

[John Chardine]

Beautiful wigeon Peter. I like the subtle colours and the head angle is great. Agree with the above comments. You need some more room at the tail end and a bit tighter crop elsewhere. I think the image is a bit over-sharpened based on how the eye looks.

[Peter Farrell]

Beautiful wigeon Peter. I like the subtle colours and the head angle is great. Agree with the above comments. You need some more room at the tail end and a bit tighter crop elsewhere. I think the image is a bit over-sharpened based on how the eye looks.

Thank you everyone for your comments.
John, I selectively sharpened the eye at the end of pp and I gues over did it. Excluding the eye does any other area look over sharpened? This is an area of PP that I have trouble with.
Thanks,
Peter

[Julie Kenward]

Peter, I downloaded the file and clicked on "print size" and thought the bird looked pretty good for sharpness. I really think a pano crop here would make this even stronger - cutting just a bit from the bottom and a lot from the top. I normally like the crop you chose but the BG has some lighter spots in it that keep drawing my eye away so might as well go in close and really show off the bird here.

Great detail in the eye and excellent HA. You have a small amount of clipping on the whites but I'm betting it's that tiny spot on it's center area - nothing much to worry about. You might check the RAW file and see if you can pull the highlights down just a smidge.