Female Red-breasted Merganser

[Ross Taylor]

This photo was taken at Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

My Canon EOS 7D mkII, EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens, and 1.4x III teleconverter were on a small beanbag on the ground. Settings were f/8, 1/500s, ISO 250, 560mm. Shot RAW and processed in Lightroom.

Cropped to 80% frame width for composition. Subdued a bright blue water ripple in foreground. Cloned out 2 small distracting spots in the water. Applied NR to water. Reduced contrast & desaturated the water.

Critiques very much appreciated - Thanks for having a look :)

Ross

[keith mitchell]

This is very nice like the way the blue merges with the water, only thing I might change is maybe a little bit off the bottom, just my personal take of course.

Keith.

[William Dickson]

Very nice Ross. Fantastic POV and beautiful lighting. I love the detail on the bird, especially the head. The wave at the front brings movement to the image, and finished off well with a nice BG. Like Keith, I would also take a wee bit off the bottom.

Thanks for sharing

Will

[Ross Taylor]

Thanks very much for your impressions Keith and Will :)

In this repost, I brought the bird down in the frame such that the point it cuts through the water is at the bottom third of the frame.

I also felt that a little more crop (75% frame width) would move the bird's neck a little more left of center.

How does it look now?

Thanks- Ross

[William Dickson]

Thanks for that Ross. I think the image is better, and very pleasing to the eye.

Will

[keith mitchell]

Like this better feel it just lifts the bird ,like I said Ross just my take,ps forgot to mention the nice bow wave.

Keith.

[Doug Griffith]

Very nice, Ross. I think the revised image with some of the bottom lopped off looks much better. Both images look better than what you posted on PBase. In the PBase image, the Merganser is too centred IMHO; and I don't know what algorithms PBase applies but the eye of the duck does not pop there the way it does here.

[Ross Taylor]

Thanks Keith, Will, and Doug :)

Doug - I reposted the other image you mentioned as well. Here it is 1200 px wide vs 800 px. That may account for the improved "eye popping" factor ;)

Thanks,

Ross

[gail bisson]

Repost looks good Ross but I would like to see abit more room in front of the bird.
I just love these ducks
Good POV and IQ.
Gail

[Ross Taylor]

Thanks Doug and Gail, for helping me realize that the bird was a little central / not enough room on the LHS.

A little tweak to the crop as reposted here, hopefully does the trick.

That barely visible tail feather that is just cutting the water has been tormenting me Lol. I do not think I can go closer to the right frame edge.

Thanks for having a look!

Ross

[Grace Scalzo]

Just love the color palette in this image. Beautiful shooting angle and fine details. I think that your final composition is quite nice.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Fantastic IQ, colours, light. Good low angle, and yes the bow wake is very neat. The version in pane #10 is just about as good as you can get it. Well done Ross!