Mergansers

[Ken Janes]

There are hundreds of Red-breasted Mergansers in the river near our house in Maine. They really move as the fly up the river to the ocean. I spent the morning trying to get a few images in focus. This is one of the better but I am not sure about the most effective crop. Thisis about 50% crop. Any comments aprreciated.

Canon 7D Canon 400mm f/5.6 hand held

1/2500 f/5.6 EV +1/3 ISO 400

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Ken,

Thanks for sharing I have the same kit and use it often. This is a large crop and the IQ could be stronger. Looks like there might be hot spots in the whites on the wings too. Maybe 0 EV would have saved the detail in the highlights. Placement is the one area you could improve try and ensure the subject does not intersect with background items. Notice the dark lines (shore or land) run through the duck. This is distracting and can be changed with a lower or higher camera position.

I love this species and it must be great to see them fly up and down the water way. Wonderful way to spend time with nature. Let's see some more maybe you can get closer and avoid the large crop. As a general rule, the subject should be 20% or more of the fame at a minimal.

[Kevin Giannini]

Very nice Ken. I've never been able to get a good shot of a Merganser in flight. I agree about the whites on the wing and body look a tad over exposed. I like the lighting on its head. I'm not sure I'd crop this so that the bird was in the center vertically which it appears to be. Perhaps selectively blurring the back ground slightly even more might make the placement of the bird with the background less apparent, and I would probably clone out some of the bigger rocks in the background as well. I like the wing position. I'm sure if you were closer you'd have more options as well. Very nice though!
Regards,
Kevin

[Ken Janes]

This is a little closer-only about 25% crop. 1/2000 @ f/5.6 ISO 400 EV 0

[Joel Eade]

Second one popped up while I was typing....much better, just needs a little noise reduction on the BG.

[Cheryl Slechta]

Ken, the repost looks good. Maybe you could lighten the top band of brown a little and the noise reduction as Joel mentioned.