Mandarin Duck

[EdNguyen]

I'm new to this forum. It's an honor to be a part of this prestigous website. I look forward to learning from everyone here. This photo was taken last week at Vasona Lake Park in Los Gatos, California. The relatively calm weather helped as I was able to get the duck's reflection in the water. Taken with Canon 1D mark 3, 800mm f/5.6L IS lens, 580EX II flash with Better Beamer, shot handheld.

[John Chardine]

This is really stunning Ed. Welcome to BPN! This is an outstanding subject and you've rendered him very nicely. The green water is beautiful and I like the head angle and composition. The reflection adds a lot of interest. About the only thing I would say to improve the image would be to boost the sharpness a little, particularly around the head area. I tried this in Photoshop and it worked well.

You are going to enjoy BPN!

[Daniel Cadieux]

A big welcome to BPN Ed, you certainly start off with a bang! A marvelous image. Exposure, sharpness, colours all look great...and that water! The only thing I would change is to eliminate the dark blotch at bottom edge (below the reflected head). As well as equipment used don't forget to include the techs such as shutter speed (I'm curious to see this one with 800mm handheld), aperture, exposure compensation, etc...and do limit the file size to 200kb max (yours is a little larger). Very well done and please post more :-)

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Welcome to BPN, Ed! Very nice first post. I like the details and water colors. The image needs some CW rotation. If you use the ruler tool in PS and draw a line from the eye to the eye in the reflection and then go to 'rotate canvas' and 'arbitrary' it gives you the amount. Keep them coming!

[Indranil Sircar]

Ed, good to see you finally on BPN. Your last set of photos including this Mandarin duck are excellent.

[EdNguyen]

Thank you all for your feedback. I have made a few adjustments to the original image. Enclosed is the revised version.

Canon 1D mk3 + 800mm f/5.6L IS lens + 580EX II flash + Better Beamer, 1/1000s, f/5.6, ISO 400, EV -0.7, shot handheld

[Juan Aragonés]

Wellcome on board Ed. I agree with most of the comments above and I would add that some cloning job near the eye to remove the dark band between the eye and the bill would be great (do not forget to do the same on the bird reflection). Some dark areas in the plumage needs a litle bit of levels adjustment to extract more of those beautiful details and I warmed a bit the temperature and added a touch of sharpening to the duck (not to the BG). Keep them coming!

ooops, I almost forget to say that the image is fantastic:o

[Linda Robbins]

Welcom to BPN Ed! Lovely first post. Beautiful subject and pretty water. Good advice regarding rotation and sharpening above. Juan's adjustments made the image pop. Look forward to seeing more of your posts!

[EdNguyen]

Wellcome on board Ed. I agree with most of the comments above and I would add that some cloning job near the eye to remove the dark band between the eye and the bill would be great (do not forget to do the same on the bird reflection). Some dark areas in the plumage needs a litle bit of levels adjustment to extract more of those beautiful details and I warmed a bit the temperature and added a touch of sharpening to the duck (not to the BG). Keep them coming!
ooops, I almost forget to say that the image is fantastic:o

Thanks for the tips and the repost, Juan.

[EdNguyen]

Welcom to BPN Ed! Lovely first post. Beautiful subject and pretty water. Good advice regarding rotation and sharpening above. Juan's adjustments made the image pop. Look forward to seeing more of your posts!

Thanks, Linda. It was windy, so I was extremely lucky to get a decent reflection in the water as the weather was cooperating for a few seconds :)

[EdNguyen]

This is really stunning Ed. Welcome to BPN! This is an outstanding subject and you've rendered him very nicely. The green water is beautiful and I like the head angle and composition. The reflection adds a lot of interest. About the only thing I would say to improve the image would be to boost the sharpness a little, particularly around the head area. I tried this in Photoshop and it worked well.
You are going to enjoy BPN!

Thanks, John. I had been reading threads in BPN forums for a long time but didn't think my photos were worthy. Finally I had the courage to show up here with my mediocre images. I'm here mostly to learn from the wisdom of bird photography experts like yourself.

[EdNguyen]

A big welcome to BPN Ed, you certainly start off with a bang! A marvelous image. Exposure, sharpness, colours all look great...and that water! The only thing I would change is to eliminate the dark blotch at bottom edge (below the reflected head). As well as equipment used don't forget to include the techs such as shutter speed (I'm curious to see this one with 800mm handheld), aperture, exposure compensation, etc...and do limit the file size to 200kb max (yours is a little larger). Very well done and please post more :-)

Thanks, Daniel. Sorry I forgot to include the techs. I know they will help you get a better idea of the shooting conditions I was under, and thus you could offer better advices.

[EdNguyen]

Welcome to BPN, Ed! Very nice first post. I like the details and water colors. The image needs some CW rotation. If you use the ruler tool in PS and draw a line from the eye to the eye in the reflection and then go to 'rotate canvas' and 'arbitrary' it gives you the amount. Keep them coming!

Hi Axel. Thanks for the tip regarding how to use the Ruler Tool for rotation. I really appreciate it.

[EdNguyen]

Ed, good to see you finally on BPN. Your last set of photos including this Mandarin duck are excellent.

Hi Indranil. It's nice meeting you here on BPN as well. Thanks for the kind words. Have you been back to Alviso's Wildlife Refuge lately? I got a few shots of a burrowing owl in flight two days ago there.