Common Golden Eye

[Terry Olmsted]

Edmonds Waterfront, January 2nd. Taken in reasonable light. These diving ducks don't stay on the surface very long! The very dark iridescent head feathers contrasted with the very white feathers made exposure a challenge - at least for me :).

Canon 40D 400mm 5.6L 1/1000s f5.6 ISO 500 partial metering ec0 AI focus

[Fabs Forns]

Very nice whites, at the cost of too dark shadows in the green part of the face. Maybe convert two version, one for the whites and one for the head and blend tgem There's a how to do this in the EDu Resouces Forum.
I'd get the noise out of the BG too. Great pose, water and head angle.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Great find, mood and interesting reflection. I agree with Fabs regarding underexposure and noise. Some pixels around the pupil look a bit brighter than the rest.

[Terry Olmsted]

Thanks very much, Fabs and Axel for your always helpful comments and pointers - I'll go to work on this.

Terry

[Rene Quenneville]

It is a very attractive picture. I agree with the previous comments but I want to congratulate you for the artistic power of your image. The reflexion and the wave make it very lovely. Great job!

[Todd Frost]

Nice looking subject, techs already mentioned. Very interesting reflection. How do you like the new toy?

Todd

[Terry Olmsted]

Thanks, Rene and Todd for your comments! Todd, I love the 40D a huge step up from the XTi.

Terry

[Stu Bowie]

The golden eye stands out very well from the darker plumage. Comp wise, I would maybe take some off the bottom, to just below the head in the reflection.

[Terry Olmsted]

Thanks Stuart. Good suggestion. I'll keep that in mind for the next one :)