Sleepyhead

This resting drake Harlequin Duck was photographed on the first afternoon of the just concluded BAA/A Creative Adventure Barnegat Jettu IPT with the Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens and the EOS-1D X. Evaluative metering +1/3 stop: 1/320 sec. at f/10. Central sensor AI Servo/Rear Focus AF on the duck's eye.

For before and after and tons more on this and another image in the series, see "Two Drake Harlequin Duck Images; So Many Lessons." The post includes image optimization, NIK Color Efex Pro, and Viveza tips.

Don't be shy; all comments welcome.


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Great job and I liked your blog photos quite a bit. Also I'm a total Nik convert.
In fact if it were mine I'd be tempted to use a control point in Viveza and warm up the yellow area of the rock to the left. That spot makes a very nice contrast. It's nice as it is though.

Great exposure control and details. The grey feathers look so soft and smooth. The rust color is beautiful against the grey. Well captured and displayed. TFS

Liking especially the eye still being open and very clear, sensational looking duck Arthur, and I rather like the texture in the rock surface as well, I honestly cant think of anything to improve upon....lovely image

Arthur Sir:
Classic image.Wonderful colors,soft lights and lovely details.Beautiful composition.
Love it.Seeing this duck for the first time. TFS.

Regards,
Satish.

Very nice, lots of detail in the ducks feathers and good exposure of the whites.

Happy Holidays Arti.

Mike

The bird looks exceptional.
It does look like maybe a tad bit of rotation needed?
I like the rock perch a lot.

Perhaps a bit of CCW or perhaps not :S3:. No way to tell from here.

Just wonderful. The image does have a restful feeling, but I am most engaged by the lovely colors, as well as the texture of the rock.

I like the composition and the pose and especially like the great details in the fine feathers. This duck is so smooth as we say that it is hard to get fine details.
You did an excellent job as always, Artie. I looked at you blog. Great demonstration of what you can do with Nic plug-ins.

Lovely Harlequin shot. I particularly like the colors/textures in the rock. Judging from the reflection in the eye, this looks pretty horizontal to me.

Bill's comment actually put me on the right track. I blew up the eye real large and used the Ruler Tool on the reflection and rotated the image .66 degrees CCW. Thanks Bill and Dank.

Gorgeous image of a beautiful bird. Unique resting place, and a nice touch that the background and rock complement the bird's color. In the repost did you also remove the TINY specks of white (sand?) from the bird's neck area?

Thanks and yes to sharp eyes. Missed them the first time around.

Love the image and the blog posting was helpful as always!

The colours of these Harlequins always blow me away and this ones no different. Personaly I would have prefered the bird be slightly morecentered in the crop Artie and the different coloured rock on the left cloned to match those under the Duck to give a more uniform appearance.

Richard

Hi Richard, I could not disagree more. For me, the composition is perfect as is and the both the shape and the color of the rock in the lower left corner add tremendously to both the compositional balance and the success of this image.

I have no clue in the world why you would want the bird more in the center as that would stagnate the image design. Respectfully.