Blue-winged Teal portrait

[Steve Maxson]

An image of a drake Blue-winged Teal taken last week from a blind on a woodland pond. 40D, 500 f/4 + 1.4X, 1/400, f/7.1, ISO 400. Comments are welcome.

[Fabs Forns]

Nice portrait, Steve. The slight green on the head is natural of the bird or a post-processing cast?
Nice detail all over, except for the whites, not surprising, very difficult to get detail in both dark and light.
Good background too. I may crop some off the bottom.

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Fabs. Thanks for the comments. The drakes of this species do have a slight amount of iridescence on their heads so the color you note is natural - depending on how the light strikes the bird. Getting detail in whites is frustrating for me at times - none of the whites on the face register higher than 234.

[Doug Brown]

Hey Steve! Agree with Fabs about the crop. I think there's a hint of detail in the whites, and they certainly don't look blown. IMO the head could stand a bit more sharpening. Overall a nice portrait.

[Maxis Gamez]

HI Steve,

Lovely portrait and composition. You did well with the exposure.

[john crookes]

I like the pose as presented any more off the bottom and you would lose the transition of the feather detail and also the curve would not be as elegant

[Steve Canuel]

Excellent BG and I like the texture of the bill.
Steve

[Simon Bennett]

A lovely portrait - a good alert pose, great exposure control and I like the subtle purplish/greenish iridescence on the side of the head.

[Philip Pietri]

Not much to complain about from my pov. Maybe a bit too much room on the bottom but your subject looks great. I really like the slight coloration on the rear of the head.