Goosander

[William Dickson]

Canon 7D
Canon F/2.8 300mm, 1x4TC
F4, 1/400
ISO 1000

Image captured in Fife, Scotland

Cropped and sharpened in CS6

[Mike Delgado]

Nice capture. I think some fill flash would have brought out the details on the head and lighten up the subject.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi William, I love the colour of the water and the pattern within it. I also like the water bubbles coming from the bow wave too. I know it would be a big step, but just darkening the exposure or using a Graduate filter to balance the top RHS would help. Maybe even adding say +12 on the saturation to give a bit more richness to the overall image. IMHO you needed more DoF, adding more sharpening centrally helps to the main body of the plumage, but I wonder if the FP was there rather than the head, as it looks a little soft. Perhaps just upping the exposure on the head just a wee bit would help but not much. Dropping the blue gives a bit more to the mid grey body plumage, WDYT?

TFS
Steve

[William Dickson]

Thanks for the advice Steve, yes your correct the focal point was the body, The bird was actually moving quite fast at the time, as you can see from the water movement. I was using AV mode, and I think, I was actually lucky to get so much in focus, as this mode set the SS to 1/400, which is way too slow. I actually took a few captures of this bird, and the water reflections were different on each pic, caused by the reflection of over hanging trees etc.

I will keep trying different settings, and keep practising on the post production

Thanks for the advice Steve, much appreciated

[William Dickson]

This is the same bird, same settings, but with a shutter speed of 1/1000, and a different coloured background because the bird had moved.

Which image, between the two of them would you say was the better

[eddyswan]

Hi William, i prefer the second image with improved sharpness especially at the head area.
It also has better POV as it was captured from lower angle which make it more appealing.

[Steve Kaluski]

Definitely the second posting William.