Mallard Hen in Flight

[David Stephens]

Here we go again. Let's see if I'm learning anything. This was taken in strong, low angle light within fifteen minutes of sunset (the pond was already in the shadow) with the following settings:

Canon 7D
Canon 400mm f5.6L
ISO 200 with -1EV
1/4000 sec at f5.6
Cropping and very limited processing in DPP
Manfrotto CF tripod with Manfrotto gimbal head

I was experimenting with the 7D's AF here and either had it at Spot or Spot-Expanded. Subsequently I've gone to Spot almost exclusively for shots like this. With the expanded mode I was often focused on the tail of the bird or even a bit of sky under the bird and lost the shot. With Spot it's all up to me and my aim, rather than the whims of the camera.

Thanks for your critique.

Dave

[Jack Faller]

Impressive that you could get such detail at this close to sunset. Surprising that ISO200 would give 1/4000 at 5.6 in that light. I'd brighten up the image somewhat and give the duck more room on the left.

[David Stephens]

This is Rocky Mountain light with no clouds to the West. Hence, it's not as red as you might expect. We're at around 5400 ft above sea level at this pond.

[Lance Peters]

hi David - very nice lovely sweet light and nice detail. Like it a lot!!
Made a couple of quick and dirty changes.
Sharpened the eye a tad
Ran some NR on the BG
Brightened the BG a little - original felt a tad heavy for my personal taste (just that though)
Extended the canvas on the LHS to give him a little room to fly into.

[Gus Cobos]

Hi David,
I like the feather details along with the head angle and eye contact. The original image is under exposed. The enhancements that Mr. Peters made, puts your Duck over the top...looking forward to more...:cool:

[Thanaboon Jearkjirm]

Love the warm color light, the nice feather details and the droplets around the body. Repost by Lance made this image even better.

Generally for side way BIF a full wing up or down is a prefer wing position so you can see full under/overwing details. Seem like you can trade shutter speed for wider f number here, if that results in underexpose then would consider push ISO up to 400.

[Jeff Cashdollar]

The spot throws me a slight curve ball, but the bright sky probably underexposed the image and the -1 did not help out any. If you had 1/4000, then the sky was bright and the EV probably should have been at +1.5 maybe +2, that would have corrected things by adding light to balance the meters mid-gray correction.

Nice image, remember best to have wind and sun behind you if possible with BIF - well done. Also, do not be afraid to shot eval sometimes too, spot is great if you hit the spot. Love the composition and full body shot - Lance's repost demonstrates the images capabilities.

[David Stephens]

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions and particularly to Lance for the nice repost.

Jeff, the light was behind me and very low in the sky, with almost no wind. I was concerned about blowing out whites on some of the birds on the pond. Hence, the -1EV that I chose. As Lance did, I should have brought the level up perhaps. Particularly in the repost, I don't see the underexposure. What should I be looking for that I'm missing? I'm thinking that this represents well the colors that I saw at the time, with the sun low, but not particularly red because of clear skies.

Dave