Wood Duck Hen on Ice

[Ian Cassell]

Canon 7D
Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L
1/1250 sec f/7.1 ISO 640 HH

Nik Color Efex 4
Nik Dfine 2
CS6
(looking at it again here, I probabably could use another round of NR on the BG).

I noticed on Denise Ippolito's blog that there are wood ducks that hang out on a pond at the Albuquerque Zoo so, hoping they would still be around, I took a little trip up there when I was at the Bosque last week (it's about 70 miles from Socorro up route 25). It's definitely worth the trip as it is a very nice un-crowded small zoo (I was one of very few people there at 9 in the morning). In addition to the duck pond, the rest of the zoo offers much including a great collection of large cats and a very healthy polar bear. The interesting pink color is from an early-morning reflection off an adjacent adobe building.

Thanks, Denise :)

[Bob Miller]

Hi Ian.....I agree another round of NR is in order but very nice feather detail and sharpness. I love the bg and the eye

[Colin Gilyeat]

Ian, I really like the backgound color. I rarely see wood ducks and when I do they're either hiding in the shadows or flying away from me I think the lifted foot really adds a lot to the image.

Colin

[Marina Scarr]

The colors here are outstanding and match your subject so well. The pose is interesting but for me the bird is too centered. I wonder if you have space if you could place the bird somewhere more to the right of center? When I am in the field, I focus on the bird's eye and then recompose the image to place it somewhere in the rule of thirds. The other option is leaving enough room to crop after the fact.

[Ian Cassell]

Marina, you have a good point. I wrestled with the crop on this one before posting, but let's see what you think of this other option (I also added a bit of sharpening and did a bit more NR on the BG)

[Marina Scarr]

What a difference this makes, Ian. The crops works well in my opinion, but what really matters is yours. The sharpness looks way better, but I think you may have oversharpened just a tad. Here's how I think about it...if it looks a little "crunchy" , it's probably oversharpened. I would experiment and probably decrease sharpening just a smidge.

[Clyde Hopper]

Beautiful Hen you have here Ian , I too like the rp better ,and agree that it looks ever so slightly over sharpened ,But the op needed some ! the pose works for me and the frame position works on the re-post ! great job Sir !

[Diane Miller]

Is there really a compositional justification for moving the bird so far down and right? I prefer the amount of crop on the top edge that the first post had. There is a lot of weight at the bottom of the image, with the reflection, and nothing is happening above the bird's head. For the extra room added on the left, there is something happening there in the ice texture, but I don't think this much extra space is necessarily required -- it becomes a matter of preference.

There are strong aesthetic reasons for putting a subject off-center, but it can become too arbitrary with a fairly static pose.

[Clyde Hopper]

Is there really a compositional justification for moving the bird so far down and right? I prefer the amount of crop on the top edge that the first post had. There is a lot of weight at the bottom of the image, with the reflection, and nothing is happening above the bird's head. For the extra room added on the left, there is something happening there in the ice texture, but I don't think this much extra space is necessarily required -- it becomes a matter of preference.

There are strong aesthetic reasons for putting a subject off-center, but it can become too arbitrary with a fairly static pose.

Great Question ! MY answer ,"Vectors". Room to the left so the Woodie can move into , if she continues in the direction I perceive she is headed .Room up top so if she extends her neck she wont be out of frame . That is how I see it anyway ,Wood (Hehe) love to hear from others !

[Diane Miller]

I would definitely frame the initial exposure with room for a neck extension, if I could. But having captured a static pose, I would subsequently crop to the pose.

Room to the left is more of a choice, but she's not moving in this capture so I see no strong reason to include too much empty space there.

[Ian Cassell]

I think you raise very good points, Diane and, as I said, I struggled with comp on this one. I actually like my OP, but like the follow-up as well and am still playing with in-between ideas.

[Randy Stout]

Ian:

I am quite fond of female wood ducks, so always appreciate seeing them. Because of the ice, her lifted foot really seems like it tells a story of the cold.

Re: cropping. Ah, the choices. I would prefer something between the two, with a slide edge to the looser end of the spectrum. There is no perfect crop, but the basic rules of composition at least give you somewhere to start, and then you adjust to fit the details of the image, or to better tell your story. I do agree with Diane that because of the pose, with the birds attention directed down, you don't 'need' quite as much room to the left as you would if the birds head was up and looking that way.

You also in generally don't want the bird too big in the frame, they tend to seem crowded. Artie uses 75% on the longest axis as his guideline.

The repost is oversharpened as mentioned, and the noise has really come up in the bird on the repost, probably as a result of the extra sharpening. I would always personally err on the side of slightly less sharp, if it meant the noise was better.

The water/ice color is great.

Cheers

Randy

[Jeannean Ryman]

Very pretty photo overall. I tend to agree with Randy on all points. I wish we had wood ducks around here!