Mallard with ice frame

[Randy Stout]

Good afternoon:

Mallard captured this afternoon at local bird sanctuary. Late afternoon sun, still bright but softening. Could not get a clean shot of him away from ice at top. Can it work as a framing device, to keep your eye in the frame, or is it just too distracting? Should I try to darken it slightly? I tried cropping it out completely, but found it looked too tight.

One of the fun challenges with Mallards is to get the entire head evenly illuminated so the green is uniform. Pretty happy with that here, and with head angle. Would have preferred slightly lower angle, but not possible at this location.

Cropping, compositional comments appreciated.

D300 70-200 f 2.8 f/7.1 200mm ISO 800 1/1250

[Grady Weed]

I would crop it out, it to me is distracting from this fine mallard. Good exposure and colors. The beast seems a bit blocked up, could be just me however.

[AJ Kunkel]

I too have a hard time balancing the green and the rest of the body and still do not have a male mallard image that I am happy with.

I find the ice somewhat distracting. Try cropping it out and adding some canvas back or burn it down.

I like the head turn and the reflection, but the white in the tail seems too hot on my monitor.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

For me it works with or without ice. Great details, head angle and iridescence.

[Randy Stout]

Thanks guys:

AJ, there were just a few pixels in the white patch on the tale that were blown, but the rest is very close. I can run a bit more highlight recovery, to pull it back a bit from the ragged edge.

Grady: The histogram doesn't show that the breast is blocked, but again, it is close to the edge. I could try a bit of shadow recovery on it.

Thanks again.

Randy

[Fabs Forns]

I'm not crazy about the ice. The breast looks fine on my monitor. The duck look awesome to me.