Mallard Hen

[Joel Eade]

Another from this past weekend in Louisville. This was on Bear Grass Creek.

1DMKIV
500mm hand held
Manual mode, evaluative metering
ISO 1600
f/4.0
1/640

Did some water clean up and had to rotate the image slightly to level it. I like the look of the very shallow clear water with the stones being visible.

[P-A. Fortin]

Very nice image. Mallards are so common that many (especially myself) tend to overlook them while going out to photograph. Yet they are still a challenge to expose properly due to the white areas, for both the male and the female.

I love the reflection and the greens in the water. Usually such bright greens would get the attention away from the bird, but since these are just a few small areas, the balance is perfect and it looks very good.

Eye and head are very sharp. A few white patches look blown here but I guess underexposing more would have made the bird too dark.

I see some kind of artifact here, probably from sharpening, on the boundary between the white and the blue wing patch. It looks a bit "pixelated" here.

[Kerry Perkins]

Hi Joel, I love mallards too and I like the pose and sharpness. To my eye this one is a bit over - as the nice colors of the duck are a little washed out. I don't think you needed the ISO that you chose here. Take a look at this one I did a while back - http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...hlight=mallard It looks like we had the same kind of light, but notice the techs. I do like the water and the rocks, very nice environment. Don't be afraid to cut back on the exposure a bit, it really brings out the colors and contrast when you do so.

[Joel Eade]

Thanks for the input. I attempted to make the suggested adjustments for this repost

[Kerry Perkins]

Beautiful Joel! See how the colors are so much richer? Very nicely done.

[Rachel Hollander]

Joel - the repost really takes this up a notch. Nice colors and comp, sharpness looks good too. Well done!

TFS,
Rachel