We do like placing small birds in frame toward one of the corners but do give them a little more room. In this case as suggested the right side would be better since he is looking in that direction.
One thing to consider also is you have those concentric water circles which look good and would be good including so that might change the entire corp strategy. For this one I would try to include the circles but you need them as the image is made and will place to duck more to the center.
btw do try to get in sun angle for lighting the bird evenly, got some serious shadows by the neck area. Also look at the water just on the top part of the frame, sure wish the duck was i that area. They do move all over the place so its a mater of waiting !!! You got some awesome ducks at your zoo, do check them out !!!!! We sometimes drive from Socorro up there for the ducks !!!!
Hi Mark,
Welcome to the BPN family,
Very good advise given, Mr. Forns covered all of the techs...my recommendation is to watch the sun angle to avoid the problem with the shadows...looking forward to your next one...:cool:
I love the detail on the water ripples.
There are some halos around the outline of the duck. You may need to get in tighter if you are using quick masks in PhotoShop to do localised PP.
Hi Mark, Lots of good suggestions given. I really like the colours in both the shoveler and the water. Nice and brighter and distinct in shoveler and soft and subdued in water. Great bird to get photos of. It looks like from the circles that a bit of c/w rotation may be needed. Looking forward tot eh next one. Dave
Hi MARK - Welcome to the BPN Family. Agree with all of the above advice. The halo's are from oversharpening - which may mean your image was a little soft to start with.
With your longer focal lenghts try and keep your shutter speed equivalent to the focal length - IE: 600MM lens - Minimum shutter speed 1/600th - will help you get sharper results.
Just posted another one, "Irate Hummingbird" and posted this info there:
For artistic expressions using Java I can add rain or snow at different velocities, lightening, move or add objects that are animated, add music, and make a capture to simulate a photograph, and can add the music to the photo where permitted. This all evolved from a simple lake applet reflection in water about 20 years ago by David Griffiths of England. Since then the Janim applet http://www.janim.com/ can do just about anything.
Northern Shoveler
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