I had to sit in a reedbed for quite a while before this guy would come anywhere near me - in the end he was a bit more sidelit than I wanted, but he's still a great looking bird. The whites on the bill were a bit hot and more detail on the chest would have been great, but I like the eye contact
Comments appreciated
George
Canon Eos-50D
600mm IS
f/8
1/1000s
ISO 640
-2/3 EV
Really nice Ring-necked Duck George, nice eye contact, have you tried a little shadow/highlight work to try and pull some more detail out of the chest? As posted I find the image a little centered and would prefer just a little more room on the left. All that said, its still a very pretty shot.
I spent time in a permanant duck hunting blind tonight watching hundreds of these ringers interact back and forth and I had alot of these sidelit moments. I think you did a nice job on the low perspective, but would consider adding canvas out front for comp purposes.
Lovely and funny bird! Great pose although a little less head turn IMO would've been better, light is nice but the angle is not ideal again, only IMO; exposure, BG/ambient and colors looks great! I would try to brighten the URC.
Congratulations!
Nice bird George and fabulous head angle. You could brighten the dark breast as suggested, at least try the tip. Also, the dark URC as Ramon suggested, should be a little lighter, perhaps clone in some lighter water or use a quick mask to overlap it so it does not draw the eye to it. Well done and congrats on a nice picture. :)