I made a short stop at our local pond preserve on New Years Day and the Wood Ducks were starting to pair off. A few were flying up to one of the nest boxes and a female kept entering it. This pair was kind enough to come within range.
Self Critique (click to reveal)
I like the poses of the two ducks, but I’ve struggled with the water and how far to crop the image.
Technical Details
Sony A1, FE 200-600 @ 321 mm, monopod, f/6.3, 1/1000, iso 3200, Manual exposure. Processed in LR & PS CC. Cropped to 4548x3120.
I really like this, the lighting and exposure couldn’t be better in my opinion.
The poses are great as well.
I’m curious, is f6.3 the standard aperture for you on subjects like this with the 200-600 lens?
I know DOF stays the same at various focal lengths as long as the ducks are the same size in the frame but is that DOF your standard goal?
I’m trying to learn a little more about avian photography.
BTW, I like the DOF displayed here.
As for the crop, have you tried having the same amount of water on the left as it is on the right since the ducks are facing left and right?
It might be worth a try.
Nicely done. Both birds are an excellent focus with superb color and detail. The water looks fine. Firing to make any changes I might drop the top by half of an inch. The reflections are well suited for the image.
Hi @Merv . This is pretty much my go to f-stop for single birds unless I’m trying to include more environment. Often with two or more birds, I’ll stop down, but in this case they were nice enough to be in the same plane, so it wasn’t necessary. Also, I live on the wet side of the mountains in the Pacific Northwest, so there’s usually a shortage of light. I should have mentioned that I did a fair amount of processing on the water as it had quite a bit of glare that I wanted to subdue.
Thanks for the answer about your go to f-stop, I just ordered a Sigma 150-600 so it’ll be fun to see how it performs.
I see now why you were concerned about the water so thanks for providing the information on the glare. Nice work on the edit.
That explains the ISO value. I figured this was fairly low light by the even lighting on the ducks.
That nice, soft light showing in the top of their eye is great!
After coming back to this image a couple of times, I like the crop of it as is. Even though the ducks are facing left and right, centering the ducks might make it too static looking.
The sharpness, color and framing really make this image. The narrative on what’s happening is important and appreciated.
Hi Dennis, this is a wonderful scene of a Wood Duck pair. They certainly look like a mated couple. I always struggle with cropping these types of images especially when I want to keep the reflection. In this case, I might move your crop upwards so that the reflected heads are closer to the bottom of the frame, and there’s more room at the top. For me personally it feels more like the birds are “grounded” that way…still, your crop works nicely too. Great image.
I should have mentioned that I did a fair amount of processing on the water as it had quite a bit of glare that I wanted to subdue.