Pink-eared Duck

[Leo Berzins]

Another of the more colourful of our Australian ducks.
Despite the name, the pink 'ear' spot is often not as visible as this one.
Not surprisingly, another common name is Zebra Duck.

Canon 40D, 400/f5.6L, 1/800s, f11, ISO 400, handheld while lying flat
cropped for composition following a small rotation to align eye reflection
S/H, levels etc., a couple of specks on the water cloned out

[Rob Drummond]

Nice low perspective Leo, wish i could get this close to these. Well done.

cheers Rob

[Joe Senzatimore]

Beautiful capture. Great light,detail and exposure as well as a great low angle. Wonderful looking duck. Thanks for sharing.

[Simon Bennett]

Excellent pose and detail, and you've got a lot closer than I can get.

[Jasper Doest]

What a funny looking duck....it just makes me laugh. Nice low angle and exposure. Thanks for sharing.

[Linda Robbins]

Amazingly beautiful duck, and a wonderful image. The pose, light, low angle and crisp detail are all outstanding.

[Tony Whitehead]

Congratulations, Leo. Good result for your efforts. Lovely image of a lovely duck. You may have got away with a slightly wider aperture which would have blurred out the BG more while retaining enough DOF to cover the duck. Did you need much levels adjustment and S/H to bring out the details in the dark tones? Exposure seems in keeping with sunny f16 but I suspect some +EC would have helped maximise shadow detail while minimising noise but may have risked the highlights - would be interested to see the histogram on the original exposure. Looking forward to more Australian birds.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Excellent results Leo. Lovely subject and good light. I would lose one of the two catchlights. :) Fabulous!

[Leo Berzins]

Thanks everyone for the encouraging comments.

Congratulations, Leo. Good result for your efforts. Lovely image of a lovely duck. You may have got away with a slightly wider aperture which would have blurred out the BG more while retaining enough DOF to cover the duck. Did you need much levels adjustment and S/H to bring out the details in the dark tones? Exposure seems in keeping with sunny f16 but I suspect some +EC would have helped maximise shadow detail while minimising noise but may have risked the highlights - would be interested to see the histogram on the original exposure. Looking forward to more Australian birds.

Thanks for the constructive comments, Tony, and for the taking the time to make them. I'm on a steep photographic learning curve (having just entered my seventh month with an SLR). The aperture was inadvertently set too small (and quickly opened up when I realised) and the EC was subsequently added to, but the ducks did not have sufficient appreciation of these adjustments to present themselves as well again before I lost my narrow window of opportunity with the light.

[Leo Berzins]

Excellent results Leo. Lovely subject and good light. I would lose one of the two catchlights. :) Fabulous!

Thanks Ákos. I see what you mean with the lower catchlight and I would certainly lose if it was from flash but I am more reluctant when it comes from a reflection of the sun on the water like this one. (Quite possibly, this is just my naive beginner's preference for minimal post-processing.)

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Thanks Ákos. I see what you mean with the lower catchlight and I would certainly lose if it was from flash but I am more reluctant when it comes from a reflection of the sun on the water like this one. (Quite possibly, this is just my naive beginner's preference for minimal post-processing.)

Hi Leo

I see what you mean about the second catchlight. I am also not a fan of too much post processing myself. Looking at that water, I would not worry that your DOF is wide, as in my humble opinion there are no distracting elements that would necessitate the use of a shallow depth of field here.