From this morning. This handsome drake gave me a nice take off pose, and I was pleased to see a nice display of all his colors: yellow,green,brown, blue and orange. It was quite dull when I took this, but the colors came up well.
D4 600VR f/5.6 1/1000s ISO 1000 Manual exposure Gitzo/Wimberley SB-900 with Better Beamer
Post: Selective sharpening, detail extractor on tail. The original was very tight, no clipping, but I had to add canvas on all four sides. Cleaned up the large catchlight
Advice and comments always appreciated.
Funny side story: A gentleman I had seen once before came up and asked about my flash. I had the Better Beamer on, and it turns out that he was Walt Anderson, the inventor of the Better Beamer. Sometimes it is a small world!
I realized I miss typed the shutter speed. The ISO was 1000, but the shutter speed was in reality 1/2000s, still a bit lower than my preferred setting for ducks in close, but I just didn't have quite enough light to work with.
While looking at the picture above, I saw a parting line where I added canvas, so corrected that and did a slight decrease in brightness, and a little increase in contrast.
Cheers
Randy
Last edited by Randy Stout; 01-12-2013 at 08:24 PM.
Great pose and excellent exposure control. I love the eye contact and the gorgeous iridescence captured and the fact that there are no shadows.
A large, square catchlight such as this sometimes gives the appearance of lack of sharpness. Although that's not the case here, I'd make it just a tad smaller & rounder.
Very nice image, Randy.
PS: just read from your description that you already cleaned up the catchlight. I think I'd go a bit further with it.
Last edited by Sidharth Kodikal; 01-12-2013 at 10:19 PM.
Randy Sir:
Magnificent take off pose captured.
Love the pose with curved feathers of wings and tail,colors,especially green on head and neck.
Beautiful composition too.
Hi Randy, love the flight pose with the forward wing position, and nice separation of the head too. Certainly lots of colours to look at, and the 'low' light shows them up nicely. Your repost is even better. Well captured.
Love the wing position, and really like that you can see the entire head with the wings stretched that far out. I don't think timing could have been any better.
The light background really lets you focus on the colors and textures of the duck, which I rather enjoy.
Do you mind commenting on the flash setting (from what I've read, most people shoot it in TTL @ -2 1/3 EV).
Neat that you got the chance to meet Walt Anderson! Did he ask you why you had that funny thing at the end of your flash? Would have been funny :)
Thanks everyone for the comments! Much appreciated.
Miguel: The flash was actually set at 0. With this shutter speed and distance to the subject, the amount of light actually reaching the subject, even with the better beamer, is quite small, and it mainly gives a little pop to the colors and a catchlight.
Oh yeah Randy, this is a fabulous Mallard in flight image! I liked the OP, but the repost just adds that extra oomph. Love those colours and perfect pose.
Repost is a dynamite image and I would like to capture one like it. I really like the wing feathers curling up as well as the usul curled tail feathers. Great colors too
Very nice Randy. Love the extended wing position and the color shown on them. Exposure looks nice and the detail is well captured. Beautiful duck IF shot.
Full Mallard Color Palette
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