I was photographing this male American Wigeon with a "high-key" background when it started to flap to bathe in the water. I thought it gave a rather neat effect with the pure white backdrop. BTW, to properly expose the subject with a white background you'll need to add lots more light compared to what the camera's meter says...in this case it was +3 EV (the whole background was a huge blinkie, plus parts of the white wing too, on the LCD - perfect for this situation)
Canon 7D + 500mm f/4 II, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/400s., f/5, ISO 800, natural light, handheld, toned down the white wing patch, and deepened the blacks elsewhere. A few stray drops in the face and near the eye were patched out. No NR to the BG needed here!
Nice timing, and always good to see a different take on 'the norm'. The only crit I have is I'd like to see a touch more detail pulled from the very top of the head. Subtle but for me I think it'd make a difference.
Neat action, nice low shooting angle and like the high-key look.
This would have worked better for me with less motion blur (sharper bird).
Agree with Ross re boosting contrast a tad bit.
Neat look. You might take a shot a making the eye blacker.... a
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