Ring-necked Duck

[Joseph Przybyla]

I captured this image at Lake Morton in Lakeland, Florida. Comments and critique welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.

Nikon D500
Nikon 80-400mm VR AF-S ED, camera and lens supported by a Oben carbon fiber monopod with a Wimberly MonoGimbal head
1/2000 F/5.6 Matrix Metering EV +1/3 ISO 720 Auto WB, image captured at 400mm (600mm 35mm Equivalent)
Post processed in Lightroom Classic, Photoshop CC 2022 and Topaz Denoise AI
Cropped for composition and presentation

[Dorian Anderson]

Love the head-on view with both eyes visible - unbeatable eye contact! Light was clearly hella flat, so I think you have the headroom in the whites to globally lighten the image. I'm sure others will call for more detail in the darks, and upping the exposure will do that while adding overall life to the image. I also think you could move the subject down a bit to trade some room below for more above. But an attention-grabbing image regardless.

[kevin Hice]

Joe I too like that intensity of looking right at you. For me it lacks some punch. Maybe some more saturation. Maybe like Dorian says it was the flat light. I have not been able to get one of these guys yet. I'm also comparing this to the birds I see up here in Nd during the spring.
Plumage during the spring is so much nicer too. TFS