Common Goldeneye

Last winter on Detroit River.

Canon 1dMk2N
Canon 600 f4 IS
Canon 1.4 TC
Tripod
f10
ISO200
+1/3 EV
1/640

Quite lovely. The nice light, the low perspective, and the perfect head-head angle all work for me. And the bird is perfectly positioned in the frame. These birds and similar species seem too have floating pupils that are nearly impossible to render as razor sharp. You might try making a Quick mask of the eye, reducing the SAT 90%, and moving the Lightness slider nearly all the way to the left. If the result is a "cookie cutter" eye, simply back off on the opacity.

later and love, artie

Excellent angle and I would be very interested what the image looks like if you follow Artie's suggestions. In the past I only tried to desaturate the yellow a bit.

This is excellent. The low angle works very well. A challenging exposure control and you did very well with it!

This is a great image. I love the low angle and the out of focus background. You also did a great job exposing your whites. I agree with the previous posts about desaturating the eye, but I would only do it a tiny bit.

Here is the repost with the "cookie cutter" approach on the eye.
I have always wondered why I couldn't get the eyes on some birds sharp.
Thanks for clearing that up!

The eye in the repost looks much better!

Andreas, the repost look excellent, and the light water really works out well for this bird :)

Congratulations!

The eye sure looks better !!!! Now you got one fine goldeneye !!!!

Great image all round for reasons mentioned below, no nits from me:).

Great image--plus great info on the eye problem.

The repost made the eye look much better. The rest of the image was already great.....nice low perspective, soft light, a good head angle, and a good composition. The light colored water really works well in this image.

Nice pose and nice low angle!