Ms. Mallard providing a duck feather anatomy lesson
This hen mallard was sitting on a submerged rock at the local bird sanctuary. She was fluffing herself a bit, and I was struck by the wonderful display of feather details. The combination of natural light with fill flash worked to really add definition to her feathers.
D700 600VR f/5.6 1/640 ISO 400 Gitzo/Wimberley, SB900 with beamer. I was as low as I could go at this location, plus there were rocks in the foreground which would have blocked her as I went lower
Post: CS5, selective sharpening, Color Efex Pro Tonal contrast
Very nice. The light appears to be coming from over your right shoulder at about 10-15 degrees. The fluffing of the feathers helped separate them so they cast small shadows, which we see in the feathers in the wings and rear half of the bird. The front half (from what I think I can ascertain on the small web image) feathers are packed a little tighter so the micro shadows are not as pronounced. A larger phase angle (about another 10 degrees) would have helped for the front area shadow definition more. However, that would have meant moving to the left which obviously would have meant a worse body and head angle. Moving right to lower phase angle would have decreased the shading effect, reducing definition. Thus it looks like you were at the optimum position for the situation. Well done!
You are right on about the light direction at the time I took this one.
Your point about the front part of the bird showing less apparent detail struck me too. I think some of it comes from the more smoothed down nature of the smaller feathers there, as well as the light angle as you surmised.
These ubiquitous birds are indeed lovely, and the fluffed-up look shows her off to advantage. Nicely captured. Curious to know what the flash setting was.
Bill - I checked and the flash was at -.3. This makes me wonder if I had the beamer on or not. I had just moved from another area, and it is possible I hadn't put it back on.
Gail: I did one version without the small rock in RLC, and should probably remove it again!