These guys are so hard to expose even in early AM sun. The whites get blown if you don't underex the blacks. What is one to do? I tried some shadow/highlight on this guy. Also do you think there's too much going on in the background?
Exposing black and white plumage properly is really hard unless in very soft light. In this case the blacks on the neck look a bit too contrasty whereas some of the whites are overexposed. In case you used RAW, you can do some highlight recovery and experiment with curves to balance the blacks and whites. The BG looks good to me
Wow! This is a great close up of these skitish species.The whites are a little hot on the head, otherwise they are fine. The underexposure on the neck is ok for me. The BG is ok but I would tone down the top right corner (especially the bright yellow stalk). You might want to to try desaturating the greens and yellows somewhat or do a selective shadows and highlights on that area. Overall, this is a fantastic image, I would be very proud to have one like it. Good job.
Last edited by joel quenneville; 01-29-2008 at 09:38 PM.
I think you were very lucky to get such a nice image at all of this shy guy. On my monitor the top of the head both black & white look a little too light. I like your image.
Love the action you captured here Susan and what wonderful timing. Axel has covered everything else but I know it is very tricking with blacks and whites together. Thanks for sharing !!!
I like it! FYI, on Monday, i found more of this species at the adjacent click ponds than I did at Viera. issue with the click ponds was that all of the ducks were on the west end, so in AM, shooting against the sun.
Hooded merganser at Viera
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