This image seems appropriate for my first avian post. ;) I'm diving in, too. :) Taken with my Canon 1D Mark lll, ISO 400, f5.6, 1/1250. Mounted on a Gitzo 1505 tripod with a Wimberley type 2 head. No flash. The day was overcast and there was a bit more wind than I would have liked. At times the wind lay down, which made for nice reflections, but obviously not when this particular duck chose to dive! Minor photoshopping to image; cropped, levels, shadow/highlight (shadow 9%, no change to highlight). Unsharp mask amount 100%, radius 1.0 pixels, threshold 2 levels.
Hi Susan - a big warm welcome and congrats on your first post -- no better way to learn than to jump right in.
Mr Ruddy has a good clear sharp eye, The head angle is good and it is sharp were it needs to be.
Techs look solid.
In relation to the sharpening personally I would usually have the threshold set at 0 for any wildlife images - in the educational resources forum there are a few posts on sharpening, Arties book and Digital basics will also cover it.
For my personal tastes the duck is too centred in the frame - best to try and work it into the rule of thirds somehow will give a more dynamic image.
Turn your overexposure blinkies on in your camera and use your histogram, would be my other two tips if you are not already doing so.
looking forward to seeing more :)
Hi Susan,
A big warm welcome to the BPN family. I like your image and capture, very good advise given by Mr. Peters. As is, you can probably try cropping from the top and bottom for a tight pano look, since your little guy is centered in frame, aside from this, you did well. Looking forward to your next one...:cool:
Hi, Susan, welcome! Jump right in, the water's great! :D Pretty much agree with above comments. Could your focus point have been on the water just below the duck? What lens were you using?
Thank you all for your suggestions and for pointing me to the Educational Resources. I spent much of this afternoon reading various articles. I knew I had a lot to learn! :) The lens was my beloved Canon 400/2.8.
Ruddy Duck diving
