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Thread: A Sliver of Good Light

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    Lifetime Member Doug Brown's Avatar
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    Default A Sliver of Good Light

    We met up with Artie, Denise, Peter Kes, and a bunch of Artie's IPT participants at the Zoo last Friday. At this time of year in the late afternoon, you get small patches of good light on the pond that constantly shift as the sun changes position. The key is to locate a patch and hope for a bird to swim across it. This Wood Duck drake did just that for me.

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    Canon 1D Mark IV, 400mm, f/5.6, 1/2000, ISO 640, manual exposure, hand held
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    Wow what beautiful colors! I can't decide on my monitor if the head/eye are sharp or not, but it could just me be. Exposure is dead on and the background is perfect. I'd love to have a shot like this in my portfolio - still learning about ducks :)

    Charles

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    loved the spot light effect on the bird Doug Bhai.. beautiful colors too... nicely done

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    Doug, nice shot.

    Love the details.

    How much crop did you apply to this shot? I am trying to get a feel of what I should bring to the zoo as I am going to be in Bosque for a week. I shoot FF, :)

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    Lifetime Member Doug Brown's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Troy Lim View Post
    How much crop did you apply to this shot? I am trying to get a feel of what I should bring to the zoo as I am going to be in Bosque for a week. I shoot FF, :)
    Hi Troy. This was taken with a 400mm f/5.6 lens and the image represents 10 MP out of 18 MP in the crop that you see. I took this on a 1.3 crop body. But I have plenty of frames where I clip the birds with a 400. I would recommend a 500mm +/- a 1.4x on a FF body. If you want to get low and shoot between the fence posts, a 300mm f/4 or possibly a 70-200mm or 80-400mm) will give you the lowest shooting angles at the main pond. Let me know when you're coming and maybe we can meet up. :)
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    Quote Originally Posted by Doug Brown View Post
    Hi Troy. This was taken with a 400mm f/5.6 lens and the image represents 10 MP out of 18 MP in the crop that you see. I took this on a 1.3 crop body. But I have plenty of frames where I clip the birds with a 400. I would recommend a 500mm +/- a 1.4x on a FF body. If you want to get low and shoot between the fence posts, a 300mm f/4 or possibly a 70-200mm or 80-400mm) will give you the lowest shooting angles at the main pond. Let me know when you're coming and maybe we can meet up. :)

    Doug, so 600mm on FF should be good. I will bring my 200-400 as well.
    I will be there from 1st to the 8th. Can you PM your contact info? Love to meet up with you.

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    Doug, It was good to see you again. You are so lucky to have these beautiful ducks so close to home. I like the lighting and the details.

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    Avian Moderator Randy Stout's Avatar
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    Doug:

    A very handsome fellow indeed. Well exposed, sharp for me,
    I wish there was just slightly more tonal separation between the bill tip and the back, from the background, so they didn't blend in quite so much. I looked at it a second time with the room lights off, which helped.

    For me, I might consider a crop up from the bottom to remove the bottom set of head reflections.

    Cheers

    Randy

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    Agree with Randy on the crop. Loved the details and the light. Beautiful shot.

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    Great colors but I had the same thought as Randy re the separation of the duck from the background especially around the bill. It's a bit difficult to see where the duck starts and ends...

    Best, JR

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    Lifetime Member Doug Brown's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Randy Stout View Post
    I wish there was just slightly more tonal separation between the bill tip and the back, from the background, so they didn't blend in quite so much. I looked at it a second time with the room lights off, which helped.

    For me, I might consider a crop up from the bottom to remove the bottom set of head reflections.
    Thanks for the feedback Randy. I'll try to lighten the water behind the bill and do a recrop.
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