Background advice

[Tim Harding]

Nikon D7100
300mm F/4 Handheld
1/1250 @f8.0 ISO 320 Shutter-priority

RAW capture pre-sharpened in LR. WB and exposure as shot. Topaz DeNoise on BG in PS and output sharpen on subject only. 100% FF - no crop.

I was shooting ducks landing across a pond when this guy shot up right in front of me - it's only by pure luck that I caught him in the centre of the frame and in-focus. I like the shot but hate the drab and busy BG. Tried blurring it a bit but that looked fake to me. Any suggestions other than replacing it completely, which will also likely look somewhat fake?

As an aside I have learned more in the last 3 weeks in these forums than months of trial and error. Thanks to everyone who comments - praise or criticism it is greatly appreciated!

[Randall Farhy]

Tim, that's a really nice shot, even though it is flying away from the viewer. As for the BG, aside from masking in a new one-try doing a layer in PS, apply one of the blur filters (gausian, surface etc), mask the bird and paint it out. This will soften the bg further. I think your output sharpening introduced a halo around the head, other than that-wow.

[Iain Barker]

Hi Tim

I actually like the trees in the background on this and wouldn't change it. I don't feel the interfere with the subject and are nicely out of focus. I also don't mind the duck heading away in this case but would have like slightly more space in front of the bird.

TFS
Iain

[Tim Harding]

I didn't t mind that the duck was flying slightly away either, as it looks to me like he has turned his head to look back at the viewer. This one has 15px Gaussian blur added to the BG and I fixed the snafu with the sharpening layer that caused the halo.

[David Kenny]

Tim, I I am with Iain on this one. I like it as shot and wouldn't change the background. It would be a keeper for me.

[Randall Farhy]

Tim, while the blur works, I also agree with Iain and David that the original is fine. A matter of preference I guess. Wish my twiggy bg's looked that good. I misunderstood your initial post-thought you were asking how to go about blurring it in a way that didn't look fake. Keep up the great work!

[Ian Cassell]

I'll vote for the bit more blur on the BG. In fact, I would like even more, such that I'm afraid it is still too busy. I'm afraid that the proximity of the mallard to the BG combined with the f/8 is a hard combination to work with. The duck himself, on the other hand, looks great to me. I like the pose and the angle and it is nice and sharp.

[Geoffrey Montagu]

I agree with your self critique Tim. Prefer the OP and the only nit might be to remove the branch intersecting the Mallards beak.



Geoffrey

[Sandy Witvoet]

Hi Tim! I go with your OP too! The focus on and colors of the duck are SO good! (do wish for a bit more head turn forward tho...or maybe body/"butt" turn toward the back?).... the natural background actually seems to complement it.
It gets so tiring just seeing a bird against a blank or "super blurred", (BORING) BG, shots like this are quite refreshing! (maybe that's our "secret" here in ETL! ... I guess most of the folks in Avian haven't ventured over here very much!) I would much prefer to see an image like this on a magazine cover, rather than one that just looks like a "field guide" photo.

[Diane Miller]

For me, the duck stands out beautifully because it's in sharp focus and the BG is blurry enough and so subtly colored, that I wouldn't feel any need to change anything from the OP. But always a good exercise to tweak things and see how they look. Gorgeous shot, and I don't mind the occasional shot of a subject flying away -- it does seem to be aware of the viewer, and that's what ducks do!

[Tim Harding]

Thanks Sandy - you make some great points. I guess we can get brain-washed so to speak from all of the perfect bokeh 'glamour' shots we see from the pros. There are other ways to portray our subjects. I presume they don't put shots like this on covers because it makes the copy hard to read.

[hirandesilva]

Hi Tim, It seems though you were on F8 and ISO 320 the SS has been 1/1250 which has helped you to get this duck sharp. I like your repost where the BG has toned down which makes the bird standout. Though the bird is flying away the bright colors make this a good pic.

[Carolyn Arnesen]

The look back at the viewer makes this shot for me, along with the muted colors and sharp focus.