Wood duck

[SimonDuval]

Hi all,

Here is a photo I took last spring in Montreal. I know I'm late in my post-processing! Photo taken with Olympus E-30 and 300mm f2.8 + 1.4tc
1/1600s f/8.0 at 425.0mm iso800. Lens was on the ground near the pond. I'm not sure about the post-processing in this one, enough or not enough sharpening?



Thanks for your comments, I'm just starting!

Simon

[P-A. Fortin]

Out of local curiosity: where in Montreal did you take it? I had to go to California to see my first Wood Duck. Montreal would be much closer.

Very good job on getting low on the ground. Background is soft and not distracting. Exposure looks good to me, although the bright reflection on the bill is catching my eye. I guess you could have stopped down the exposure, but I'm not sure about the impact on the white feathers.

f/8 might have been a bit too much. You could have opened up a bit and lowered the ISO a bit. The background would have been even softer. I would mention that it would also reduce the noise, but since I can't really spot any, it is not really an issue with this image.

As of sharpening, post-processing wise, it looks good to me. I wish the head was sharper, but looking at the image it looks like the focus was on the body of the bird instead of the head/eye. You should always aim your focus to the eye of the bird: sharp eye contact would definitely improve this image, especially since the head angle is good here. I'm no sharpening expert, but I do not know if more sharpening on the head would improve or degrade the image. Maybe it would be worth trying/experimenting.

Overall a very good start. You are at the right place to start. Lots of information and nice people on these forums.

[Kerry Perkins]

Hello Simon, nice capture of the wood duck - just a little bright overall for my eye. Looks like the sun was pretty high in the sky and the light is a bit on the harsh side. Upshot is you have to save the whites in this situation but the blacks get crushed in the process. Color rendition looks great and a very solid image, could use a little more room on the left and maybe on top. Hope to see more of your images!

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Great comments above - too tight IMO but I would take a tad of the bottom to remove the dark smudge. The darks need to opened up try levels or highlights and shadows.

Keep em coming, thanks for sharing.