Wood Duck Drake

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Canon 5D3 | 500 f/4 + 1.4x
1/1600" | f5.6 | ISO 500

Taken at the local pond about a month back. The ideal would have been to get the side in focus as well, but I'm not sure that would have been possible at such close distance. It took some patience to capture this guy without any other coots/ducks/geese in the bg.

[Randy Stout]

Miguel:

Lovely colors, detail, bg. Yes, a bit more dof would have been nice, but you are correct, that it would have been difficult to get enough to cover the entire body at this distance and focal length. In retrospect, I might have pushed the ISO up a bit to get a bit more aperture flexibility, but the transition from infocus to OOF is smooth, and the head so captivating, that it works well for me.

Challenging exposure with the whites and reds here. The whites on the bill are great, as they are very easy to burn. Perhaps a few points hot on the very back white area on back of neck, and I might tone down the reds a couple of points in the eye, but very well done overall.

Nice bow wake too

Cheers

Randy

[Arthur Morris]

Comments above all spot on. But, try adding 50-70 or more points of Cyan to the REDs in Selective Color.... No way to get enough dof to cover the forward flanks as such close range. All in all, well done.

[Grace Scalzo]

Miguel, THe only thing I might say is that the purples behind the eye look slightly oversharpened, I might back off a touch there. Otherwise, a nice intimate portrait with some charm to it.

[David Salem]

Great intimate look at this beautiful drake. All looks good over here Miguel.