Curl
Loc: Toronto, Canada
I recently captured this image of a male Mallard Duck in flight. I would appreciate a general critique. Many thanks for your help.
Great shot of a difficult capture. Love the background. You should be proud of this one.
To me it it looks like a great painting. I would like to have it on my wall.
To me it seems as if was post processed too much.
Unlike the first poster, I do not like the background. It is distracting.
Curl wrote:
I recently captured this image of a male Mallard Duck in flight. I would appreciate a general critique. Many thanks for your help.
I would crop the bottom. The back round is un-natural to me - but is otherwise OK. The sharpness is passable but could be much better - a bit closer with more shutter speed ?? Excellent pose !
Never saw a Mallard at the Ocean ....maybe a LARGE fresh water lake ??
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Beautiful image. Nothing I can see to improve it.
I agree with kpmac, the background is a little distracting.
Light colors advance, dark recede.
So the whitecaps, sky and water surfaces are competing for your eye's attention.
Imagine how the duck's colors would 'pop' on a dark background.
Perhaps you could tone the background down in 'post' and see how it works...
God Bless!
Curl wrote:
I recently captured this image of a male Mallard Duck in flight. I would appreciate a general critique. Many thanks for your help.
A study of flight dynamics!
Rule of thirds and space for the duck to fly into. Subdued and pleasant background. Appropriate level of sharp, but
duck seems posterized and lifeless. The overall composition is first class.
Is this a composite?
I like the composition and sharpness and exposure of the Mallard. My only suggestion is to darken the background somewhat. It's very easily done - mask the Mallard, then invert the mask and apply some exposure adjustment - I used Levels and increased the black slider 48% and now some details of the sky and water are visible. I can post it if you want - let me know.
Nalu
Loc: Southern Arizona
To me, the background is distracting. I assume, considering your location, this is Lake Ontario, but looks like the ocean. It is strange to see a Mallard flying over the ocean so the bird seems out of place. Unfortunately, I can't see your camera data so I can't make camera settings suggestions. To me, the background has too much detail in it. I don't know your apeture settings, but I would be shooting wide open to better isolate the subject. And overall, the bird is soft. Seems like you had sufficient shutter speed considering the lack of blur on wingtips, so have have to conclude that there might have been a focus issue here. I'm assuming it was overcast considering the low dynamic range of the bird. Perhaps increasing the contrast on the bird itself, leaving the background alone, might help. And a tighter crop might also help. Delderby asked whether this was a composite. I would also ask the same. That was my first impression considering the detail in the background.
The picture is very good. I used Topaz AI Clear on your photo and I thought the bird got a little sharper.
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