Hoodie

[Ed Vatza]

Hooded Merganser image made yesterday at one of the North Shore (NJ) Lakes.

Canon 50D; 300mm f/2.8L IS w/ 2x TC; Tripod-mounted.

1/400 sec @ f/11; ISO 400; -1/3 EV; Sunny WB; FL 600mm (Effective FL 960mm)

[Ramon M. Casares]

Love these ducks and their hair do :D Nice detail and colours, a lower angle would've imporved the BG, but still this is nice! Congratulations!

[Terry Sohl]

Well done Ed. Dang tough bird to nail the exposure. On my (uncalibrated) monitor I'm on now, the whites look hot behind the eye, but not bad.

[Aidan Briggs]

Nice colors and pose. As mentione the whites are hot and a lower angle would be better. I might crop a bit from the bottom as well.

[Ed Vatza]

Thanks guys. I appreciate the feedback/critiques.

Regarding getting lower - I was down on the ground but I was on the bank at the edge of the pond/lake so i was about 2 to 3 feet above the water surface. The duck was out far enough so that I felt the angle was reduced enough to be good. I guess it could have been better.

Regarding the whites - I felt I had pushed the white close to the limit without crossing over to "hot". But maybe not. Probably should have gone to -2/3 EV but the histogram looked good at -1/3 and I was trying to expose to the right.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Great find, details and I also like the half-raised crest. The whites look good here, you could selectively tone them down to see if you get more details this way.