Female Goosander

[Svante Larsson]

Image from a hole in the ice where people feed the birds (in the center of Stockholm).

Nikon D300, 500mm +1.7xTC, f/6.7, 1/60 s, Spot metering, Exp bias +2/3, Fill flash

For some reason there was a dividing line going from the dark spot in the top of the image to just behind the birds eye and down to the bottom of the image where the right side was (is) lighter and the left side darker. Tried to fix that with a bit of light painting. Then some snow flakes is cloned off and a bit of levels and curves.

Hope for C&C.

Shortly after this image was taken it started to snow (dustlike "flakes") which means that I have a heap of images with "scratchlike" marks. Can anything be done or is it just to accept that the delete button is there for a reason :o.

[Andrew Merwin]

I like the HA & that I can see its foot. It feels a bit tight to me. I would suggest adding more space on the right & above. I think the exposure is good & that you have used fill flash effectively. Also, it needs CW rotation to level the image.

[Dave Leroy]

Nice look back pose of an interesting bird.

I might try a bit more sharpening to the some of the feather areas particularly on the head.

I think if your had a bit higher shutter speed than instead of snow flake streaks on the other photos you would have had snow flakes.

[Maureen Allen]

Really nice, Svante. Sharp with great detail. Love the little foot! It looks just a tad dark to me, particularly the head. I might try lightening that a bit. Also, the two dark areas above the bird are a little distracting. Perhaps you could lighten those somewhat as well.

This little guy looks really cold to me :)