Picture taken during in heavy overcast conditions. Wood Ducks are rare in Newfoundland. They breed sparingly in the western portion of the province. This particular individual has been in St John's year round since 2005. St.John's has several ocation wher people gather to feed ducks. Stry ducks that find their way here tend ot get in the with locals and often become quite tame. This even include divers such as Scaup and Tufted Ducks- great photo ops for these specis in St.John's in the winter.
Wow, Dave, now that is a low angle!! How did you get it? You have great feather color and the detail is the brown feathers on the lower side is fantastic. The light color bg sets off the wood duck very well, but is a bit distracting for me.
Hi Dave,
I just love that you got so low down for this image...
Feather detail is beautiful and the sharpness looks really good. I think that the bird's head could be brightened a tad - I do sympathise with your low light situation!! I do find the top third of the image very distracting and I would definitely crop it at the top of the pale line to make a pano. Or you could just darken down that part of the picture - I'll be interested to hear what everyone else thinks.
Reagrds,
Nicki
Dave,
I like the second repost as far as the contrast on the duck, but you cropped too much from the top. It does not look right. Keep what you did on the second repost but go back to the original post and just tone down or diffuse the white strip...:cool:
Have to agree with Nicki's nice critique here Dave. I'm not a big fan of the recrop. I'd be tempted to clone or paint in the BG to get rid of the line.
Here is the original toned downa bit. I tried to clone out the line but it wasn't working. I think is about the best I can do here. The park is only 5 minutes form my house so I'll have more opportunities with this guy.
Hi Dave - nice looking duck - agree with the above - first crop is better - but need to fix the BG.
Or as you have said - you have more opportunites - just keep in mind whats in the BG.
Here's a little tip - not sure what the BG is going to look like - setup your shot, before you take it - manually put your lens way out of focus - sort of lets you see what the BG will look like.
I wasn't in the water Cheryl, rather lying flat on the shoreline with my camera resting on the ground on the tripod mount (handheld). So it does appear as though I was in the water.
Hi Dave:
Love your wood Duck, don't know how you dodged the size police with your original (1000 px along longest edge)?
Thought I would try to get rid of the dark part on top. Used Quick Mask to move light portion up, then cloned with large size brush at 28% opacity. Then QM to select cloned over area and used Gaussian blur .
Hi Dave Sure wish you could have lined up the duck without the white bg line Bg is as important as the main subject. Do like the low angle and pano look but would have preferred a little less of a pano look, its very skinny.
You should have lots of opportunities in your area for ducks, QuidiVidi Lake sure has some nice ones !!!!
Wood Duck
