Low Angle Wood Duck

[Conrad Tan]

Camera: Canon 7D
Exposure: 1/2000sec
Aperture: f/4.0
Focal Length: 500mm
ISO Speed: 400

This is my first post so I'm trying to get the hang of this so please bear with me. :o This image was taken while I laid flat on the ground at the water's edge during a visit to Irvine Regional Park in SoCal last year. It was taken in the late afternoon and there were a few wood ducks paddling about the pond when this fella came in real close for a shot. :)

[Doug Brown]

Welcome Conrad! Love the low angle and the beautiful water. Composition looks good. I might sharpen a little more.

[Randy Stout]

Conrad:

Excellent first image, with good low shooting angle, good use of DOF to really smooth out the surrounding water, nice head angle of bird. Exposure very close, perhaps just a little loss of details in the whites, but woodies are notoriously challenging to get the exposure just right. As is often the case with woodies, the eye often looks a bit unsharp, but you are very close, and I might consider another go with selective sharpening of the eye.

Interesting colors in the background. Although the gold brings out the color in the bird, I wish the coloration across the background was a bit more uniform.

Nice one. Look forward to more.

Randy

[arash_hazeghi]

Welcome to BPN Conrad!

It was nice meeting you yesterday, looking forward to see the Kestrel shots!

One fine image of the woodie, love the low angle and eye contact, a lot to like here. Agree with Doug about sharpening the head and beak a bit more. Well done!

Looking forward to more

Best

[Bill Dix]

Handsome bird and lovely first post. Great light, and ultra low angle really makes it. Congratulations and welcome!

[Conrad Tan]

Welcome Conrad! Love the low angle and the beautiful water. Composition looks good. I might sharpen a little more.

Many thanks Doug! I'll re-do the sharpening a tad more. I've been known to oversharpen before so I wanted to watch that with this first post :D

[Conrad Tan]

Conrad:

Excellent first image, with good low shooting angle, good use of DOF to really smooth out the surrounding water, nice head angle of bird. Exposure very close, perhaps just a little loss of details in the whites, but woodies are notoriously challenging to get the exposure just right. As is often the case with woodies, the eye often looks a bit unsharp, but you are very close, and I might consider another go with selective sharpening of the eye.

Interesting colors in the background. Although the gold brings out the color in the bird, I wish the coloration across the background was a bit more uniform.

Nice one. Look forward to more.

Randy

Thank you kindly Randy! The whites were completely blown out and could not be recovered no matter what I tried. This species, as you said, was so difficult to PP. I'll do some selective sharpening and see how it goes for my next try. Thanks again!

[Conrad Tan]

Welcome to BPN Conrad!

It was nice meeting you yesterday, looking forward to see the Kestrel shots!

One fine image of the woodie, love the low angle and eye contact, a lot to like here. Agree with Doug about sharpening the head and beak a bit more. Well done!

Looking forward to more

Best

Thank you Arash! We will have to go shooting again soon man. I'll do a bit of selective sharpening next go-a-round!

[Conrad Tan]

Handsome bird and lovely first post. Great light, and ultra low angle really makes it. Congratulations and welcome!

Thanks for the welcome Bill! I'm happy you enjoyed this shot :D

[Myer Bornstein]

It must be my eyes but the picture looks sharp on my monitor nice portrait of wood ducks

[Conrad Tan]

It must be my eyes but the picture looks sharp on my monitor nice portrait of wood ducks

Many thanks Myer! I appreciate it :cool:

[Alfred Forns]

Big Warm Welcome Conrad !!!

Sweet first post !! Love the low angle and overall feel !!! Agree with comments and can add would stop down a bit more since your shooting low the bg does not come into play !!

Bg wise wish you could have captured the duck all in the gold :) btw for these you need the softest of light to have any detail in the white areas, as is would need a tad more light for opening the shadows, do like it as presented since opening in PS will probably turn them into mush!!!! Looking forward to the next one !!!!

[Conrad Tan]

Big Warm Welcome Conrad !!!

Sweet first post !! Love the low angle and overall feel !!! Agree with comments and can add would stop down a bit more since your shooting low the bg does not come into play !!

Bg wise wish you could have captured the duck all in the gold :) btw for these you need the softest of light to have any detail in the white areas, as is would need a tad more light for opening the shadows, do like it as presented since opening in PS will probably turn them into mush!!!! Looking forward to the next one !!!!

Thank you very much Alfred! I am truly humbled by the offerings here at BPN! :o Wow! Haha! The all-gold background was available at this location. The yellow was from a passing paddleboat actually. And alas, the 2 o'clock light was still too bright to have any hope of recovering the whites. I will try again soon. Again thanks for the big welcome Alfred! :D:D:D

[DanWalters]

Great low angle and I like the colors in the duck and in the water.

[Bonnie Block]

Hi Conrad. Welcome! Good to see you here.
Love this image--super colors and angles. A different time of day would have helped this guy--they are difficult. Looking forward to more from you here on BPB! :):)

[Markus Jais]

Hi Conrad, welcome to BPN. You have chosen the right place, this forum rocks!

Wonderful shot with great low angle and great colors. The water is wonderful. I might sharpen a bit more, especially around the head. Great head angle.

Markus

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Conrad, welcome. I like the surreal feel here. Low angle was the way to go here. Well done. Sharpening should do the trick. Not sure how advanced you are in photoshop. I am not so I use very simple PP methods. For such an image, I usually select the bird( after reducing to this size. not on orig) using quick selection tool, use refine edge to exclude the edges and then run USM of 250, 0.25, 0. usually does the trick. Play around those parameters a bit and experiment. I'll post a Mallard shot later today that has been sharpned this way.

[Conrad Tan]

Hi Conrad. Welcome! Good to see you here.
Love this image--super colors and angles. A different time of day would have helped this guy--they are difficult. Looking forward to more from you here on BPB! :):)

Thanks Bonnie! Good to see you here as well my friend! :)

[Conrad Tan]

Hi Conrad, welcome to BPN. You have chosen the right place, this forum rocks!

Wonderful shot with great low angle and great colors. The water is wonderful. I might sharpen a bit more, especially around the head. Great head angle.

Markus

Thank you Markus. I will do a bit more sharpening around the head area. Thank you very much for the critique :)

[Conrad Tan]

Conrad, welcome. I like the surreal feel here. Low angle was the way to go here. Well done. Sharpening should do the trick. Not sure how advanced you are in photoshop. I am not so I use very simple PP methods. For such an image, I usually select the bird( after reducing to this size. not on orig) using quick selection tool, use refine edge to exclude the edges and then run USM of 250, 0.25, 0. usually does the trick. Play around those parameters a bit and experiment. I'll post a Mallard shot later today that has been sharpned this way.

Thank you Kaustubh. My photoshop skills are mid-range and I am familiar with the parameters you are describing. Thank you very much for your advice :cool: