Tufted duck - male

[Mike Poole]

These are normally quite shy ducks but it was quiet at the pond today so this one came just into shooting range

Canon 1dx
500mm + 1/4x
ISO 2000
1/1000th f7.1

Mike

[Isaac Grant]

This looks fantastic Mike. Beautiful details, great head angle and eye contact. Plenty of details in the dark chest feathers. I do see a little noise in the whites but that should be easy to clean up. Super image.

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Outstanding frame, Mike. Great POV, and wonderful feather details capturing the iridescence in lovely soft light. Well done.

Geoffrey




http://https://500px.com/geoffreymontagu

[William Dickson]

Well done Mike. As you said these ducks are shy, so good on you for getting so close. Lovely feather detail and the head looks real good. Colours are spot on. Lovely POV and HA.

Will

[Randy Stout]

Mike:

The pov, head angle and that crazy tuft are outstanding.

There does appear to be a fair amount of noise on the bird, and the whites behind the breast seem perhaps overexposed and not recoverable.

Could you share some details about your post processing to help us understand the image better? I assume your ran noise reduction on the background, but not the bird?

Cheers

Randy

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

I see a little noise too, in the blacks mostly.
If I were you, I'd remove that tiny little speck of sparkle from the bill and crop a bit from above. This is getting too square-ish for me.
Love the low angle! Congrats!
TFS

[gail bisson]

Love, love the POV and the terrific details in the head.
Agree with others re: noise in the breast but that would be an easu fix,
Gail

[Mike Poole]

Mike:

The pov, head angle and that crazy tuft are outstanding.

There does appear to be a fair amount of noise on the bird, and the whites behind the breast seem perhaps overexposed and not recoverable.

Could you share some details about your post processing to help us understand the image better? I assume your ran noise reduction on the background, but not the bird?

Cheers

Randy

Cheers Randy,

It was a bit bright to be shooting these I suppose, so I tried to go as far to the 'right' as possible but trying to avoid losing any highlights must have cost me some in the other direction as I had to raise the blacks possibly a little too far. I'll try a version with some Nr on the breast. The whites were close to toast but not blown - possibly look a little brighter when saved as a jpeg compared to the TIFF.

Thanks for the head up

Mike