Lesser Scaup Portrait

[Mike Milicia]

EOS-1D Mk III, 500mm f/4 + 2xII, 1/200, f/11, ISO 400
Manual Fill Flash
Full Frame
Removed flash catchlight.

Photographed a couple weeks ago in Coronado, CA.

Looking forward to your comments and critiques!

[John Haig]

Nice detail in the bill and I love the way the image shows the typical lesser scaup crown...very nice head shot.

[Christian Dionne]

As John said, the details on the bill are just amazing! great job at dealing with the contrasts though it looks like we are missing a tiny bit of details in the darkest black...

Great portrait Mike!

[John Chardine]

Mike- Love tight portraits like this, with tonnes of eye contact. You have maintained great detail in the blacks of the face on my monitor at least, and yet the BG is well exposed too. The only thing I would consider is toning down the dark brown patch in the right BG.

And for those you say you lose sharpness with the Canon 2x converter- this critically sharp image is evidence that in the right hands you don't.

[Bill Dix]

Wonderfully sharp eye and bill. Beautiful composition in the camera - amazing to get close enough for a full-frame shot like this, even with the 2x. A handsome portrait indeed.

[Ilija Dukovski]

Great portrait and how in the world did you get this close to this duck:)
Question: Did the auto-focus work with the 2x converter or did you focus manually?
I'm thinking of getting a 2x converter myself, but I'm afraid of losing auto-focus and IQ.

[Mike Milicia]

Great portrait and how in the world did you get this close to this duck:)

Getting close is fairly easy once you find a location where the subjects are well acclimated to people. The hard part is finding places where this is true. In this case, the location was courtesy of Artie's San Diego Site Guide.

Question: Did the auto-focus work with the 2x converter or did you focus manually?
I'm thinking of getting a 2x converter myself, but I'm afraid of losing auto-focus and IQ.

Whether or not you get autofocus with a 2x depends on the camera body and lens. In the case of a Canon 1D body, you get autofocus up to an f/8 equivalent lens, but at f/8, you can only use the center AF point.

[Ilija Dukovski]

In the case of a Canon 1D body, you get autofocus up to an f/8 equivalent lens, but at f/8, you can only use the center AF point.

Thanks Mike, I'll look if my D700 would work with TC2.