Northern Shoveler

[Ronald Zigler]

Canon 60D, 300mm f4 + 1.4x, @ 1/640, f11, ISO 500, HH. Too much of a crop?

[Ian Cassell]

Hi Ron! Nice capture of this shoveler. They tend to be pretty shy for me. I would consider moving him up in the frame a bit (crop some off the top - just above the series of concentric ripples) and cleaning up the water a bit.

[Ronald Zigler]

Thanks Ian for the suggestion. The ducks at this park in Harrisburg, PA have become somewhat accustomed to people, since people frequently walk along a path along the water's perimeter. However, they are easily spooked if they notice you looking or pointing a camera at them.

[Kerry Perkins]

Hi Ronald, I do think the crop has caused the image to lack in detail. I see a halo around the bird which usually indicates that sharpening was applied a bit heavily. If the image were not already soft, I would suggest cropping from the top, bottom, and right side, but I think that would be too much... The splash rings in the upper part of the image are a bit distracting.

[Ronald Zigler]

Here is the image cropped closer. I am not sure what you mean Kerry by a "halo", however, I do concede that I may have sharpened too much. Not sure if this image is any better in that regard. I might need to go back to the RAW image to re-edit there. Thanks for the feedback.

[Kerry Perkins]

Ron, a halo is a bright border artifact around the edges of a subject. It is very apparent in your original image, just look at the bottom edge of the bill, under the head, and down the front of the neck. It is less obvious in the repost but still visible. This is an artifact that comes from sharpening sometimes, and is something to look out for. I like the detail and overall look of the second image! I would suggest cloning out the detached piece of head in the reflection.