First Woody

[P-A. Fortin]

2nd post from my trip to California. This time, Wood ducks at Santee Lakes. We have those in Quebec but I had never been able to see one yet. When I read about Santee Lakes, I decided it was worth the 2h30 drive from L.A. just for this photograph.

And the site did deliver. On top of multiple other ducks (my first cinnamon teal and my best ring-necked & shoveler pictures so far) were those very tame wood ducks. I also have a picture of a female sitting in the grass, less than 15ft away from me while I was changing memory card and battery without moving a single feather. I also have a bunch of pictures of a couple mating (of wood ducks, obviously...) about 30ft away from me. Ladies, next time you feel like your husband is not romantic enough, be assured that things could be worse: you could be a Wood duck...

Yet taking a good image was somehow a challenge. In the water, they seem to be more aware of your presence, and for whatever reason they tend to avoid plain daylight and mostly swim in the shadows of the trees. Not that a wood duck in the shadows is an ugly bird, but of course the colors of the feathers in sunlight is much more appealing.

Canon 60D, 100-400mm @ 400mm, f/5.6, ISO 500, 1/2000, no flash, manual exposure, handheld while lying in alot of different organic components.

Bit of exposure/recovery, CCW rotation and crop at about 45% in Lightroom 3.
Noise reduction on the background (Strength 6) and Color Noise Reduction (30%). NR (2), CNR (15%) and sharpening (unsharpen, 40%) on the bird in CS5.

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[Jeff Cashdollar]

PA,

Thanks for the narrative regarding the trip sounds like a fun time and great moment with nature. This picture is compelling and illustrates the beauty of this creature. The water above the subject is well muted and I like the low profile. Large crop hurt the IQ a bit, could be sharper especially in the head/eye area. I might take some off the bottom, just past the red eye reflection. IMO when the subject has lots of room on the bottom and on the top it can get lost in the frame, in this case my eye tend to find its way to the OOF water on the bottom edge. Given the "hide and seek" game with the shadows this picture is well done. This guy is so beautiful, it just makes me pause - what a stunning creature - thanks for sharing.

Tech are solid and was the NR done in LRIII or CS5 (pulg-in)? Do you have anymore to post.

[P-A. Fortin]

Thanks for the comments Jeff.

The trip was one of the most exciting experiences I've been through. The places I visited are just amazing (La Jolla Cliffs are so much more than just pelicans!), I've spent time with very interesting and nice people (Kerry at Bolsa Chica, the chairman of the Sepulveda Basin Area committee, some guy who spoke french at Lake Balboa), and I've seen birds I might just never see again. It is really sad that my job has to take me near such places :c3:

I felt the same about taking some water off (and even above), but when I realized that I was around 45% crop, it kind of scared me away from that plan. I might try it for experimental purpose though, maybe combined with going a bit harder on the sharpening and see what happens. I'm a bit reluctant to go too aggressively on the sharpening. 50% seems like a psychological barrier to me. Actually makes me wonder how people actually sharpen their images. Most of the time, they just post "sharpening" in their tech specs. I have alot of expectations toward the Monthly processing exercise to learn about such topics. I got Photoshop less than a week ago so I'm still walking in the dark here.

NR was done in CS5 since I wanted to process the background more aggressively than the bird. I know it is supposed to be possible with the masking feature in LR3, but the selection tools of CS5 are so much more efficient and easy to use that it was an easy decision. I am now using LR3 mostly as anyone would use Camera Raw (I guess?), and that is for global image exposure correction, white balance, and contrast adjustments. I also read that CS5 algorithms were much more efficient for "post-development" processing. Plus it gives me more learning opportunities with CS5.

More to post? For years to come yes. Just for this woody I had to pick 1 image among 88 that I decided not to delete among the 250 images of wood duck I took on that day :Whoa!: And I took 3300 over the 3 days of my trip. But for the sake of not taking over this forum, I'll try to stick to 1 per specie :S3:

[Jeff Cashdollar]

PA,

Post as many per species as you want and I agree with the way you use LRIII, same here. I visited the cliffs last year, Artie publishes an area guide that was useful. I was able to photograph several pelicans and seals - it was a great trip.

Sharpening is an art, I leverage the processes steps from Artie's Digital Basics and APTATS2.

[P-A. Fortin]

I got Artie's guide 3 days before departure. It contains alot of useful information for these 2 sites (La Jolla / Santee). Since my time was limited (Driving from LA, La Jolla, Santee & returning to LA on the same day), the information in there save me _alot_ of time that I might have otherwise wasted looking for interesting spots.

I am currently re-reading Digital Basics (because the first time, without photoshop, it was harder to make sense of all this information). I also got APTATS1 & 2 during the holidays but I'll stick to the basic stuff first. One step at a time.

[Jeff Cashdollar]

I am not that big on digital adjustments and only do the base minimal. I do use the "sharpening and NR routine" in APTATS2 on almost every shot I post - it is great!

The one where you 1)first run NR, 2)apply layer mask, 3)paint on a red mask, 4)add a second layer and sharpen,..ect,..

[P-A. Fortin]

Noted. I'll look it up. Thanks for the hint.

[Kerry Perkins]

Hi P-A., Jeff covered all the technical bits. Getting close to the birds is one of the big challenges of bird photography. You will get better at is as you go along. Looking forward to seeing all those images!

[EzhilSuresh]

PA, very jealous about your visit and the chance to see such amazing birds. The bird has been presented well given the crop you had to do. Keep them coming.

[P-A. Fortin]

Repost. Tighter crop to remove some at the bottom. Tried some more aggressive sharpening (although I have to admit that I have a hard time spotting the difference).

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