American Wigeon

[John Chardine]

The light was nice and I waited for this American Wigeon to swim into an area of darker toned reflections and out of bright, sky reflections.

The speculum (little white triangle at the rear) was blown so I linear-burned that area. Also darked that area of the bird because the sun reflection off the feathers was bright there. I cropped, straightened, sharpened, and cleaned up the water a little. The saturation was given a little boost as well. Hope you like it.

Canon EOS 50D, 500/4 x 1.4 tcII = 70mm
capture date: Tuesday, 1 September, 2009 65 PM
exposure program: Aperture Priority
ISO speed: 400
shutter speed: 1/400
aperture: f5.6
exposure bias: +0.3
metering: Pattern
flash: OFF

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the mood, eye contact and sharpness, very nice reflections in the water, too. I think it needs about 0.5 degrees CCW rotation.

[Doug Brown]

Beautiful bird on a beautiful color of water. Nice light. Good sharpness. Congrats on a nice one!

[Manos Papadomanolakis]

I Iike the water color,angle and pose!

[Graham Smith.]

I do indeed like it John.
Very nice BG and good sharp subject. I agree with the need for just a little more CCW rotation, but other than that I think its a darn nice shot!

[Simon Bennett]

I like the pose and crisp presentation.

[Gal Shon]

A nice calmness feel to the image,
I like The angle, sharpness and the good reflection.

[Ian Mason]

I like it a lot! Colours are really nice.

[Aidan Briggs]

Nice reflection, and exposure. I wish the BG were a bit more distant, and the light a tad better, but still like it.

[Kiran Poonacha]

A classic pose and image.. loved the light and details.. to green water adds to this.. congrats..

[Matt Vosniak]

I don't know what I like best about your shot here John. The bird looks great but the water is fantastic. Couple those things with the perfect low angle and head posture and you you got one great image.

[Peter Wallack]

Thanks for the image. I have never seen this species better presented. I learned something about shadows near sunlight and the correct exposure that I will not forget.

[John Chardine]

Many thanks to everyone for the comments.

Peter- that's the whole idea behind posting and critiquing at BPN- ultimately everyone learns!

I had a feeling I would hear about rotation! For some reason the cattails in the BG and not vertical and I think to a certain extent they give the illusion of the need for some CCW rotation. I checked the bird and the water and they seem horizontal to me. I won't give up though- I'll try to see if there is a better rotation in the CCW direction.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Many thanks to everyone for the comments.

Peter- that's the whole idea behind posting and critiquing at BPN- ultimately everyone learns!

I had a feeling I would hear about rotation! For some reason the cattails in the BG and not vertical and I think to a certain extent they give the illusion of the need for some CCW rotation. I checked the bird and the water and they seem horizontal to me. I won't give up though- I'll try to see if there is a better rotation in the CCW direction.

If you draw a line with the ruler tool from the tip of the bill to the tip of the bill in the reflection or from catchlight to catchlight in the reflection and then go to rotate > arbitrary it will give you the amount. I just tried the catchlight to reflection of catchlight method and it was 0.78 degrees.

[John Chardine]

OK Axel, I never thought of that trick- reflections are always directly underneath the source in a horizontal image. I've always just done it by eye with the grid (Cmd-') in front and looked at the water and the bottom of the bird. Thanks for that!

[Axel Hildebrandt]

The repost looks good!

[Dr.Pranay Rao Juvvadi]

The details are great. The repost is good.