Cruising Hoody with the top up.

[Gary Esman]

7D, f/5.6, iso 400, 1/800, 700mm.

Taken over the Holiday weekend on Friday. November in SW Michigan and the sun was out...amazing. C and C appreciated.

Thanks, Gary.

[Melissa Groo]

What an awesome profile on this drake, Gary. Superb capture. I love all the curves and lines here, both on him and in the water. Gorgeous light. Perfectly sharp. Love the surge of water in front. Excellent job! Wouldn't change a thing.

[Randy Stout]

Gary:

Excellent hood display, tail up off the water, nice detail in whites on hood, nice little bow wake.


Because the water is so bright, I tried a version with a modest crop from the top, and a sliver off the other three sides. This tends to rebalance the image more in favor of the duck, and my eye wasn't quite so over powered by the bright water.

I also did a version with the luminosity of the water toned down a bit. Neither is better than your original, just several options.

What time did you capture this, as he simply was never in the light before I left at about 11:00.

Cheers

Randy

[Gary Esman]

Gary:

Excellent hood display, tail up off the water, nice detail in whites on hood, nice little bow wake.


Because the water is so bright, I tried a version with a modest crop from the top, and a sliver off the other three sides. This tends to rebalance the image more in favor of the duck, and my eye wasn't quite so over powered by the bright water.

I also did a version with the luminosity of the water toned down a bit. Neither is better than your original, just several options.

What time did you capture this, as he simply was never in the light before I left at about 11:00.

Cheers

Randy

Thanks Randy, I probably stayed another hour and a half. The rest of the weekend was looking poor for shooting so I thought I would try to make the best of it. This was about an hour after you left. Thanks for trying different versions. I do think the background can be toned down just a little. If I remember correctly, he just came out of the shade.

Gary.

[Josh Clark]

Nice Hoody top up of well....the Hoody. Nice low angle on this guy and great job exposing those whites. Looks like you had some decent light for this image.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Very nice capture, Gary. low angle makes a huge difference...well composed and sharp. If mine, I'd try sharpening the eye a bit more.

[Randy Stout]

Gary:

I couldn't resist. This version has a few of the changes I mentioned, plus I opened up the shadows on the darker areas a bit, and sharpened the eye. Tweaked the whites a bit so they were a little whiter

I over did the changes slightly so they could be seen.

A very neat capture for sure.

Cheers

Randy

[Gary Esman]

Gary:

I couldn't resist. This version has a few of the changes I mentioned, plus I opened up the shadows on the darker areas a bit, and sharpened the eye. Tweaked the whites a bit so they were a little whiter

I over did the changes slightly so they could be seen.

A very neat capture for sure.

Cheers

Randy

Looks sweet Randy and thanks! Was this done in PS or in the NIK program?

Gary.

[Enrique Patino]

The water looks better in the repost, maybe also the whites on the hood look. But the underexposed black in the OP are noisy in the repost... or is it just me? I also like the eye in the OP better... I am having a hard time getting close enough to these guys and getting the right exposure. I like the low angle and the subject a lot.

[Randy Stout]

Gary:

This was a combination of PS and Nik. Luminosity layer with multiply blend mode on the water. Nik detail extractor on the blacks and white neutralizer on the whites. I find the latter filter to be a bit unpredictable, but it can work very well in some cases.

Enrique - because I was limited to working with the compressed jpeg , the recovery on the blacks wasn't perfect, but I wanted to show the basic concept of opening up the shadows, reducing the luminosity in the water, and making the whites a bit whiter.

Gary can do a much better job with the raw file. I do agree in retrospect, that the eye needs some more work. I think there is room to sharpen it further with a better result when using the original file.

Cheers

Randy

[James Salywoda]

Totally beautiful Gary excellent details and low angle another sweet duck shot......

[Gary Esman]

Thanks all for your kind words, suggestions and re-posts.

Gary.

[Wynand van Wyk]

I like this image a lot! Great angle and detail well captured. Beautiful colours on the water.

Just adding my well done!

[Neil Nourse]

Gary,

I like this one a lot. Nice low angle and I think with some of the suggestions applied you will have a real fine image.

TFS, Neil