Siblings

[wendell westfall]

D90 70-200VR+2X@220 1/4000 f/8.0 ISO400 -1EV handheld

This is a heavy crop, but other adjustments are very minimal. All five juveniles were lined up behind mama, but two of the individual images overlapped, thus the crop. Does it "work"?

Wendell

[David Stephens]

The crop still leaves the tail of a third duckling. I'd add a little more contrast. I think that you should have taken more shots, trying to isolate one or two birds. You got a nice light in the eyes of two. It doesn't look real sharp, but looking at SS and aperture and the eyes, I'd expect better sharpness. Maybe it was your big crop, but I'd expect more clarity with those settings and the eyes in focus. Still, nice effort.

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Wendell,

This one does not work for me. The partial duck takes my eye and leads it out of the frame. I would look at different crop opportunities and repost. The image is soft too as mentioned above. With the fast shutter might need to pan a bit or consider tripod - keep em coming.

[Kerry Perkins]

Wendell, this one is not working for me. While baby duck butts are very cute, I think they need the rest of the duck or should be evicted (there are actually two of them on the right). The chick on the left has its tail cut off, or at the very least touching the frame, so you really only got one bird in the shot. The one bird in the center has a shadow of the one on the left on its back due to the sun coming from the left. I agree that the sharpness just isn't there, and I'm not sure that I can find any part of the image that is in focus, which is hard to explain given the shutter speed and aperture. I know you are capable of better images! I'm sure they are still there, so how about another go at it?

[wendell westfall]

David, Jeff, Kerry: Thanks for your candid and thoughtful critiques, very much appreciated. The message as I understand it is that this image does not "wor'k" -- to put it mildly. Well, now for me it is back to the drawing board, or to LR3, or my Nikon, or . . .

[David Stephens]

My approach would be to try to do more with the camera. Take more shots, more angles, etc. giving yourself more to chose from. A grouping should be "complete", with as many of the subjects totally in focus as possible, etc. With wild things, particularly multiple subjects, that means taking a lot of shots. You're always striving to make each shot good, but also take advantage of the digital format's freedom from cost once you've invested in the equipment.

The ducklings are still "cute", but you're trying for something more I suspect. It'll come.