American Coot

[Duane Noblick]

Date/Time	05-Apr-2009 07:08:47
Make	Canon
Model	Canon EOS 40D
Flash Used	No
Focal Length	400 mm
Exposure Time	1/320 sec
Aperture	f/5.6
ISO Equivalent	125
Exposure Bias	-1/3
White Balance
Metering Mode	partial (6)
JPEG Quality
Exposure Program	aperture priority (3)

Ignore the blurred branch on the right...nothing I could do as I was trying to make the best of the available light. Only wish it had turned slightly towards it's right to get more of the bird in the sun and I could change my shooting angle.

Duane

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

HI Duane,

Nice plumage details where the sun is hitting it. Shame about the dark, underexposed areas, but you may be able to recover to a degree. I think you balanced the overall exposure well. While the bill's whites look a bit cooked, I do need to remember that I am at work and the monitor here shows things a bit lighter than my home laptop. The water looks great as does that reflection, which is almost perfect.

Maybe a little flash fill would have helped recover some of those shaded areas. Thanks for posting and looking forward to seeing more of your birds. :)

[Ramon M. Casares]

That reflection is almost too perfect ;) Great light, pose, detail, exposure control, BG and comp. Congratulations.

[Mike Milicia]

Very cool ... love the puffed up pose, the gorgeous water, and the amazing reflection!

The blocked up areas don't bother me much in this image but agree may have benefited from
some fill flash.
For my taste, would like to see a bit more room at the bottom to better balance the composition.
And maybe just a bit more of a head turn.

[Dave Phillips]

a beauty Duane....the bit of blocked black does not bother me either, in fact I think
it adds a bit

[Duane Noblick]

HI Duane,

Nice plumage details where the sun is hitting it. Shame about the dark, underexposed areas, but you may be able to recover to a degree. I think you balanced the overall exposure well. While the bill's whites look a bit cooked, I do need to remember that I am at work and the monitor here shows things a bit lighter than my home laptop. The water looks great as does that reflection, which is almost perfect.

Maybe a little flash fill would have helped recover some of those shaded areas. Thanks for posting and looking forward to seeing more of your birds. :)

Thank you for the critique. I did try to recover some detail in the shaded areas but did not like the results. My images like this are going to suffer when it comes to using fill flash...when a bird flinches because of the flash I refuse to use it...which for me, is most of the time that I've noticed. I rely on natural light as much as possible and reflectors are out of the question for obvious reasons. Thank you again.

Duane

That reflection is almost too perfect ;) Great light, pose, detail, exposure control, BG and comp. Congratulations.

Thank you. I was trying for a mirror reflection but with other waterbirds swimming about it was almost impossible..this was the closest I could get.

Duane

Very cool ... love the puffed up pose, the gorgeous water, and the amazing reflection!

The blocked up areas don't bother me much in this image but agree may have benefited from
some fill flash.
For my taste, would like to see a bit more room at the bottom to better balance the composition.
And maybe just a bit more of a head turn.

I do have other captures with more of a head turn but haven't processed those yet. Thank you for pointing that out.

a beauty Duane....the bit of blocked black does not bother me either, in fact I think
it adds a bit

Thank you for your thoughts on this image. I try not to do much to an image in post processing. I remember almost each one when I capture it and if I alter it too much it looks fake to me. If it wasn't meant to be I will remember it the next time.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Duane,

Don't be concerned about flash use. Most birds will flinch. I doubt it bothers them that much. :)