redhead drake profile closeup
First drake redhead duck I've seen/photographed - pretty cooperative at Lake Merritt, including swimming close enough to give me this profile.
It turned cloudy to give nicely soft light just before I went to the lake to find him, and I think I got a little shaft of light on his cheek when I squeezed this frame.
Very nearly full frame. 50D + 500L f4.5 + non-reporting1.4x, on tripod & WimberleyII.
ISO 640, f5.0, 1/640.
Allen- Beautiful bird and beautiful water. Camera angle is high but the benefit is the great even background. Great head angle and eye contact. Regarding the crop, the acid test to include or not is - does inclusion add anything to the image? In this case ask if including so much of the back and body of the bird adds anything to the image. I don't think it does and would suggest playing with some crops that take quite a bit off the right. There is a lot of nice detail in the image but I think it could be sharpened a bit more to bring it out. here's what I'm thinking.
John: thanks - that crop is better.
How do you know how much sharpening is enough, and not too much? Just visual experience?
Not so much experience and visual feedback as you sharpen. I don't sharpen by the numbers but always inspect the effect of sharpening at 100% on the monitor. I push the sharpening until I start to see obvious sharpening artifacts and then bring it back so that they disappear. If you want to go by the numbers, I find that a sharp image out of the camera, resampled for the BPN can need about 75-100% Amount at 0.3-0.4 Radius with the Lens Blur setting of Ps Smart sharpen.
Allen, I love the color and sweet light here. John's re-post definitely improved the image with the portrait crop and added sharpness. There is usually a lot of latent detail in the high-pixel count bodies, like the 50D and 7D. The challenge is to sharpen just enough without introducing artifacts and it is not always an easy call. It is something that I still struggle with and sometimes my images are said to be over-sharpened or not sharpened enough. There is a degree of "taste" involved, but mostly it is a matter of evaluating whether or not your sharpening adds to or takes away from the details, especially in feathers. One trick is to copy your final layer (if you use PS or another program with layers), sharpen until you get artifacts, then adjust the opacity of that layer until you get the optimum result.
I'm seeing a little bit of noise in the bg, could use a light round of NR.
Nice capture!
"It is an illusion that photos are made with the camera... they are made with the eye, heart, and head." - Henri Cartier Bresson
Please visit me on the web at http://kerryperkinsphotography.com
I didn't realize we redheads were quite so pretty!
You did a beautiful job capturing some great detail and, as you noted, the lighting is beautiful. I think if this had been mine, I'd have included more of the breast and less of the back. It feels a bit "chopped" right at the bottom of the frame to me. I do like John's crop better but would think the optimal crop would have been vertical presentation with all the way down the front of the bird.
Lovely details and lighting, though...a very nice image!
Allen,
IMO little more of the body at the bottom will balance the head better.
-sid
Nice shot with nice detail.
It looks like John added some brightness as well as the colors popped at me a little more, besides liking the crop. I would classify it a keeper for sure. They can be tough on exposure with their vermiculated back.
Stan
Excellent shot Allen. I like both but I can see where John's is a little bit sharper but I would be happy to have either in my portfolio.
Dave
Thanks for the feedback, everyone. Here's another closeup where I did have more breast - so I cropped similar to John's suggestion, sharpened and ran NR on the BG:
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