Wood Duck along the grassways

[Jack Breakfast]

Hello folks,
Here is a fine wood duck, taken the other morning with the Canon 7D and 70-300L at 300mm. iso800, 1/250, 5.6. I cropped some off the top and a little off the left. I'll be eager to hear your thoughts and ideas. I wish I had some more room on the bottom, but I don't! Many thanks for your considered opinions. I've been struggling with the crop/composition here. I like what I have here but will be more than eager to hear your suggestions...I am guessing most folks will suggest an eviction of the colored-bar at image's top...

[laurie golden]

Jack,

The bird, background and the grass - except for some grass in the right hand corner looks soft to me. The overall feel of the bird in this scene being soft is fine with me - kind of complementary dreamy tones. Maybe a foggy morning? I would take that patch of sharp grass and blur it a little to match the rest. And I definitely would keep the color-bar at the top.

[Jack Breakfast]

Thanks Laurie, I should have mentioned that it was a foggy early morning. I must admit that the softness is appealing to me here. My focus point was not on the bird's eye, an oversight on my part. To my eye, the duck's neck feathers look quite sharp...I believe that's where my dimwitted point-of-focus was. There's always the possibility of blur due to slow s.s. as well! You wouldn't know it to look at this picture, so please let me tell you that wood ducks were everywhere, socializing with the mallards, climbing in and out of the water, and house sparrows constantly flying in from the nearby sunflowers. Sounds good? Oh yes! But finding a pleasing picture wasn't so easy. It was bedlam, folks! The charming wood ducks were also coming right up to me, taking little lovebites at my shoes and so on. Urban pond fishermen were casting their lines in and out of the fetid pond, scattering the ducks and sparrows each time. Slammo! Getting back to the image...perhaps it could use a contrast boost? I'm not sure. I like this picture enough to keep it, but I feel like it needs some tweaking. Usually I know what to do to improve an image in post-processing, but in this case I feel somewhat stymied. Worse still, I don't know why my brain has been bogged down into some kind of aesthetic quagmire, so to speak? What gives, good people?

[laurie golden]

Jack,

I looked closely at the duck again and do not see anywhere on the bird where there is a spot that looks like it is what you focused on. So I assumed the soft look was due to fog. But that does not explain why the grass on the right is sharp - I'm doubt that your camera has a focus point in that spot.

Maybe someone else can give you some good advise, but I would like it if that little bit of grass was softened.

[Miguel Palaviccini]

I think you've done great with what you have! If you could go back and take it again, I would suggest getting low(er). Right now you can tell that you are looking down on her, which isn't always a bad thing. But in this case you could have brought more of the green background (currently at the top of the frame) into the frame.

[Jack Breakfast]

Miguel, many thanks. I am in complete agreement with you RE a lower angle in this case. On this particular morning, with all the action going on it would have been too difficult. I do believe I'll have other opportunities at this locale and if possible, I'll lie down on the rocky pathway with all the goose and duck droppings. What do I care, and what's the worst that could happen? I'm not even being facetious or sarcastic. I will lie down among the turds of waterfowl so as to ameliorate my imagery. I don't believe I'd be the first on this forum to happily do so! Right, folks?

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Jack, You may not have been aware at the time, but I think your focussing point may have been on the grass. If you were focussed on the duck, I cant really see an area that shows a sharper area than anywhere else. Of course I could be totally wrong. BTW, I would leave the top colour band, but wish for more space below.

[Daniel Cadieux]

I will lie down among the turds of waterfowl so as to ameliorate my imagery. I don't believe I'd be the first on this forum to happily do so! Right, folks?

I can tell you first-hand that indeed you'd not be the first

I do like the curious pose and the clump of grass. As per Miguel, oh man that BG strip of colour would have looked amazing lower by getting down and dirty!

[Jack Breakfast]

Right-o folks, I will try again over the course of this coming week. So long as the fishermen aren't around, I should have some luck...urban pond fishermen, by the way, are one of the steamiest banes of my angry existence!!

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Jack, I liked the shooting angle and the pose. Focus might have been a bit front of the duck. But sharpening the face some more can help. Focussing on birds walking towards you at this angle can get tricky. I usually am in ai servo mode and quickly grabbing the duck's face with the approrpiate AF point using the joystick.

Colors are nice at the top but with the bird looking down, I think that area is creating some imbalance. My personal preference would be to crop some from the top.

[Jack Breakfast]

Kaustubh, many thanks for your comments. The more I look at this, the more I agree with you completely RE the imbalance. Cropping some from the top helps greatly with that. I too was in AI servo, using the joystick...I just screwed up is all! I also agree that sharpening my friend's face will help. What will be even better is for me to return to the same locale and hopefully not become quite so distracted by the buzzings around me...learn from my mistakes and so on...