Common Merganser

[John Mack]

This image was created at Cayuga Lake In Ithaca, New York on 3/24/18 at 6:07PM. Image processed in Lightroom and Photoshop.

Hand held, Small crop.

Canon 5D MarkIV
Sigma 150-600 Contemporary
600mm
ISO 800
f8.0
1/2500sec

[David Roach]

Nice details, EXP and SH. Also love the water droplets. TFS

[gail bisson]

Hi John,
I like the merganser and the windblown hair.
Exposure looks good.
I am not a fan of the rippled water. I don't even shoot ducks anymore if the water is too ripply.
Could you have gotten lower? That would eliminate the ripply water in the BG and softened the ripples in the FG.
I could see a version with the second catchlight eliminated. A bit more of a head turn our way would have been good.
Gail

[Randy Stout]

John:

I agree with Gai's points. Lower shooting angle def. would have helped with the separation between the bird and water. Especially. important when the tones/colors are so close between the two.

You could do more of a pano crop to reduce the ripple impact some, reduce the number of ripples in the frame, and I tried a version where I made the ripples less visible by reducing the blue in the water. It helped some.

Second catchlights can be an issue. Generally base decision on whether to remove or not on the impression of a less sharp eye when there are two catchlights in some cases.

Cheers

Randy