I spent quite a while with this one bird at a local loch, on a sunny afternoon. A wise old man once told me on here 'when conditions are bright, and you are photographing white birds, go for 1/4000, f/8, ISO 640'. And I did, and it worked. After being out in the open for a while the bird, moved into the side of the loch, where it was heavily shaded by over hanging trees. It then began preening, and gave me lots of different views, great pose after pose, for about 30 mins. I decided to keep the same settings, as it looked good with the dark BG, and nice whites on the camera screen. I added contrast and lowered the shadows on the BG, to darken it down a bit, which I thought was a more pleasing image. I managed to get lots of keepers, so any advice, tips, to make the image better are appreciated.
You have captured a very intimate moment of a free and wild and naturally-occurring species. :) The EXP is perfect, the image is sharp on the eye, and the ruffled/layered look of the far underwing is sublime. And, you had just enough d-o-f to cover the tail.
The only thing that bugs me is the shadow on the swan's chin. I have been trying without success to figure out what caused that shadow ... For my two cents, I would lose it.
with love, artie
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Special moment you have captured as I have not seen such nice pattern on the ruffled feathers. Also, not easy for eyes to pop for this spices. But you did well here.
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