Female Northern Pintail

[Karl Egressy]

Taken in February.
Thanks for looking.


Canon EOS-1D Mark IV
Manual Exposure
Tv 1/1000
Av 7.1
Spot Metering
ISO 250
EF500mm f/4L IS USM +1.4x

[gail bisson]

Karl,
Love the tranquil scene and the low angle. Good headturn and light. No nits from me!
Gail

[RakeshDhareshwar]

Lovely nice angle to this one . Would clone off the wave ripple below the beak , as it does not add to the scene .

[Harshad Barve]

agreed with comments above , may be touch more USM
TFS

[Raymond Lee]

Great capture! The sharpness looks fine to me. Yes, clone out the line below the beak and behind the tail. That line doesn't seem to fit the tranquil scene.

Raymond

[Dumay de Boulle]

Nice low angle and good colors, maybe a bit more contrast and looks a bit soft, some more sharpening should help.

[Karl Egressy]

Nice low angle and good colors, maybe a bit more contrast and looks a bit soft, some more sharpening should help.

Thanks, Dumay, thank you all.

Here is the improved version.
Lonece cloned out, selective sharpening to the duck was applied.


http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc29/karlo1789/DW3C3543CV.jpg

[Randy Stout]

Karl:

Lovely duck, nice shooting angle, prefer the repost. Normally I like ripples, but this one was so limited and dark that it didn't add to the image.

It looks like it need a sliver of CCW rotation to my eye.

Cheers

Randy

[Stu Bowie]

Karl, just love the calmness of the water, and your low angle works well, as does your repost. Maybe a little off the bottom.:w3

[Troy Lim]

Karl,

Nice low angle, reflection.
Lack of punch, maybe play with the level a bit? More sharpening also.

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Nice low angle and reflection. Repost is A+

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Karl, loved the calm water and head turn. OP looks quite soft and am unable to figure out why. With that equipment, f-stop and SS, I'd have expected the shot to be much sharper.

[Karl Egressy]

Karl, loved the calm water and head turn. OP looks quite soft and am unable to figure out why. With that equipment, f-stop and SS, I'd have expected the shot to be much sharper.

Thanks Kaustubh.
Did you see the repost? I did some more sharpening.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Yes Karl, saw the repost. additional round of USM has helped certainly. But just wondering what made the out-of-camera image soft. The tail side of the duck is nice and sharp but the face came out a bit soft. She probably moved after you locked focus, did she? Ducks are quite deceptive...they appear still but aren't alwasy so. I prefer using AI servo for 'ducks in water' and just choose the right focus point for composition. They change their angles all the time so one has to quickly switch points. With one-shot focus-recompose technique, I've missed critical focus at times due to duck movement.

[Karl Egressy]

Yes Karl, saw the repost. additional round of USM has helped certainly. But just wondering what made the out-of-camera image soft. The tail side of the duck is nice and sharp but the face came out a bit soft. She probably moved after you locked focus, did she? Ducks are quite deceptive...they appear still but aren't alwasy so. I prefer using AI servo for 'ducks in water' and just choose the right focus point for composition. They change their angles all the time so one has to quickly switch points. With one-shot focus-recompose technique, I've missed critical focus at times due to duck movement.

Thanks Kaustubh.
I actually do the same as you do, change focus points, that is. I always use AI servo.
I can stop focusing with my thumb if I wish but I rarely ever use it. I prefer to switch active focus points 99 percent of the time.
It works for me.
This time, since it was a relatively far target, the active focus square was the center one.
It was partially sitting on the neck and partially on the water. Most of the time I focus on the head, but since this was a hand held
shot, I don't always succeed hand held. It is too heavy for me and can hold it motionless for so long.

[arash_hazeghi]

very nice low angle and colors, I agree the image appears soft even after sharpening, the critical focus does not appear to be on the duck, I am sure you will nail it sharp next time :)