Ruddy Duck

**Dave Mills** · 03-08-2009, 10:31 PM

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**Dan Walker** · 03-08-2009, 11:41 PM

I like the movement and the pano crop here. Looks like there is a lack of detail, esp. in the face? Great head angle.

Axel Hildebrandt · 03-09-2009, 08:13 AM

Light and angle look great. I would sharpen the bird more. Is this a heavy crop?

**Dave Mills** · 03-09-2009, 09:34 AM

About a 25% crop. Mostly off the top and bottom....

**denise ippolito** · 03-09-2009, 09:52 PM

Dave, Nice capture on this little one! HA and water colors are great! The beak looks nice and sharp.

**Arthur Morris** · 03-10-2009, 04:33 AM

Decent light and a good head angle. Not sure (with all due respect) what Denise is seeing (see commments above) as image quality especially sharpness is not what it should be.... Not sure of the cause but with 1/1250 sec. SH SP improper focus would seem to be the culprit. It looks as if the sharpest focus is in front of the bird.

What focusing pattern were you using?

**denise ippolito** · 03-10-2009, 12:40 PM

Arthur, I think the beak does look sharp-not tack sharp,but it does look to be the sharpest part of the duck and that is what I was seeing and commented on.

**Arthur Morris** · 03-11-2009, 07:02 AM

Hi Denise, Not to be a pain in the a__, but this is what you wrote: "The beak looks nice and sharp."

**denise ippolito** · 03-11-2009, 08:34 AM

Arthur, I think the beak looks nice and sharp-it is the rest of the duck I feel needs sharpening,however that was already pointed out by Axel- and I felt no need to rub it in. (you are not a pain, but I do stand by my words or I would not have said them)Thankyou for taking the time to clarify that.

Roman Kurywczak · 03-11-2009, 01:19 PM

Hey Dave,
Sharpening advice given above.....but the water in front of the bill looks sharp.....so this question is for Artie......at f8.....I would guess the body was also sharp...considering the 25% crop also......my bet would be on a PP miscue......why do you feel it's a mis-focus? Hope it's not to late and you read this.....because now I'm curious.

**Arthur Morris** · 03-11-2009, 02:06 PM

Originally Posted by Roman Kurywczak

Hey Dave,Sharpening advice given above.....but the water in front of the bill looks sharp.....so this question is for Artie......at f8.....I would guess the body was also sharp...considering the 25% crop also......my bet would be on a PP miscue......why do you feel it's a mis-focus? Hope it's not to late and you read this.....because now I'm curious.

If the water in front of the bird is in sharp focus it seems obvious to me that sharpest focus was on the water, not on any part of the bird. I did ask above what focusing pattern was used as sometimes when you attempt to focus with an array of some sort on a duck the system focuses on the water. That question remains unanswered. So, by definition, at least as far as I understand it, if the water is sharper than the duck then the image had to have been incorrectly focused.... If it were properly focused then at least some part of the duck would have been sharper than the water in front of the duck.

Roman Kurywczak · 03-11-2009, 02:17 PM

Hi Artie,
OK.....I hope Dave comes back with the focus point answer......but maybe I wasn't clear with the question......to me visually..the focus looks good in front of the bird's bill..and the bill is OK...not razor sharp.......but the parallel focal plane would be along body.....I do not think the water in front of body (FG) is as sharp......could it be wet duck syndrome?.....it would be interesting to see what another round of USM does.....hope he looks in.
BTW....going on the Hooptie tomorrow.

**Dave Mills** · 03-11-2009, 08:50 PM

wow, I just tuned in and thought this image was long past discussion. My focus point is always on the head(hopefully I can nail the eye) but I'm generally not far off unless I'm shooting a faster moving subject. On my monitor the duck's head is sharp with the body a little softer and I attributed it to the duck being constantly diving and generally wet. Obviously I could be mistaken on that thought and possibly my DOF wasn't high enough but at F8 I usually can grab the whole front as long as it's fairly parallel.
I've tried alot of sharpening recommendations on posting and find I get mixed results. Many are right on and some show a small degree of softness which I'm at a loss to correct. This mainly happens in the conversion process. I appreciate the debate and everyones input on this.

**Arthur Morris** · 03-12-2009, 05:14 AM

Hi Dave,

re:

My focus point is always on the head(hopefully I can nail the eye) but I'm generally not far off unless I'm shooting a faster moving subject.

Were you using C or S? Did you manually select an individual AF sensor?

On my monitor the duck's head is sharp

Most folks here know that I am not a stickler for killer sharpness but fact here is that the bird's head, face, and eye are nowhere near sharp.

with the body a little softer and I attributed it to the duck being constantly diving and generally wet.

I am confused here by your and (I think) Roman's infrence that the feathers of a wet duck cannot be rendered sharp. That is not at all my experience.

I've tried alot of sharpening recommendations on posting and find I get mixed results. Many are right on and some show a small degree of softness which I'm at a loss to correct. This mainly happens in the conversion process. I appreciate the debate and everyones input on this.

All of the images that come out of digital cameras are inherently unsharp when compared to film images. Sharpening works best with images that are sharply and correctly focused. This image does not fit into that category.

**Dave Mills** · 03-12-2009, 04:49 PM

I use C Artie...continuous..Thanks for your comments

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