Mute Swan

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

40d. 400f5.6L at f/7.1. iso 320. 1/800s. bean bag on ground. evaulative metering +1 to expose to right. Pulled it back a bit during RAW conversion

I dont do big crops but I have done one here. This is probably just 25% of the orig frame. The IQ held up pretty well. I am, infact, thinking I should back off a bit on sharpening.

When I saw, the Swan had his/her neck&head in the water. I visualised this shot and set myself up very low with sun behind me. I will post next frame as well. Instead of coming out fully, he/she went back in :-) came back out but at a different angle.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

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the next frame in the sequence.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

here's the orig. No optimization done on the jpg.

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[Vivaldo Damilano]

Superb stuff Kaustubh, like the way you have showed the frame sequence, really nice :) Love the detail on the bird head and the water droplets. Excellent composition and low angle TFS

[Stu Bowie]

Kaus, love the curves of the neck, tack sharp, and those droplets puts this over the top. ( IMHO, I feel your second frame will turn out even better:) ) Well captured.

[George Cottay]

Based on some reign of terror boat landing incidents I have an active dislike of swans but really like your pictures.

[Bill Dix]

Nicely conceived, captured and presented. I like the crop, and the IQ held up well for that large a cut. Sharpening looks OK to me. Thanks for sharing the sequence.

[Willem Verboom]

I like the sharpness in this frame.The neck angle is nice too.

[Nancy Bell]

Very well done. All your precise thinking and planning produced an excellent image. Those water droplets are great and the low, low POV is perfect.

[Robert Amoruso]

Low angle just right - though I would suggest here a slight elevation was called for to get the whole neck with the blue water behind it.

I would also suggest adding a bit more of the body in the crop.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Love the low angle, water drops on the face and neck, and IQ for the large crop. I agree about adding some body back (perhaps double what you currently have). You could eliminate or tone down the two parallel bright streaks on the bill. I find the second image to be stronger with the water falling off the bill.:)

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Thx everyone.

Daniel, Robert, here's repost of the second shot with more body.

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[Daniel Cadieux]

Nice repost KD! The swan is now strongly anchored to the frame:cool:

[Bhushan Dalvi]

KD, nice capture. Love the curves in the neck and you did well with the exposure. I like the re-post better with more of the body. The IQ held pretty well for the large corp. TFS.

[RakeshDhareshwar]

The 2nd image repost is just brilliant !! Love the exposure you have on the bird. The water drops stand out superbly !! The sharpening looks ok . The drops would have looked very artificial , if you would have gone overboard :) . Brilliant image overall !!

[Randy Stout]

Kaustubh:

Well executed plan. Like the final repost best. Good techs. Appreciate Roberts point about angle of shooting, to get the entire head/bird on the blue, not cut by the shoreline.

The trade off would be slightly less dramatic low shooting angle.

Cheers

Randy

[Mital Patel]

kd you made my day. what an amazing angle here with such a brilliant details. congrats on every moment you got of this .. loved the 2nd version more with water dropping from beak as it adds values to the moment you captured.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Thx folks.

Randy, Robert, thx for the good advice on the shooting angle. When I set up, I was expecting the bird to come out fully. I chose the shooting angle to make sure the body would be entirely against blue as I was sure the neck would intersect at some point. After this, he went down and immediately came up but at a different angle. I'll share this image from a few seconds later. The image I had visualized was exactly like this but with better HA :-)


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[Kiran Poonacha]

I loved all the posts KD, beautiful images. loved the angle, light and the water droplets add a lot.. nicely done

[Mark Young]

The second image with some clearance between the bill and the water with the water falling off the bill is my favourite composition of the two.

[Indranil Sircar]

Excellent composition, Kaustubh. Love the low angle and the exposure. Repost on #12 rocks...