Mallards in tandem+Repost

Gallery: AvianPosted August 6, 2011139 views4 comments

I photographed these two guys at a local lake in Dallas. I like the way they are so symchronized and flying in such tight formation. I wish I would have gotten a little better light on the heads to bring out the iridescent green. Some folks will probably prefer a looser crop but I like tight crops, I guess that comes from my days as a newspaper photographer and to be truthful there was no more room on the right anyway.

D300s w/ 200-400 VRII lens
1/1250 @ f6.3 ISO 250 HH

Thanks in advance for all comments!

Comments

4 comments

Comment posted by SandyRichardsBrown on August 6, 2011 at 2:44 PM

Nice positions on these 2! The catchlights don't look authentic, though - wrong angle.
Seems like very harsh light, as the ducks are pretty flat and color-less, and the whole image is quite bright. Adjustment of the levels/brightness/contrast might help a little.
Yes, it does seem very tight. IMO, they need more room all around, and a lot more room on the right to "fly into." Canvas can easily be added on any side you wish.
Great to catch them in flight!
Sandy

Registered on November 24, 2003, 3937 Posts, 12909 Comments

Comment posted by Keith Bauer on August 6, 2011 at 7:06 PM

I like the flight pose as well. Something looks really off with the colors / balance in the image. I took a look at the histogram from the larger version using levels. You could easily push the black point to the right by 40. There are no blacks in the image. Let me know if that doesn't make sense and I'd be happy to post some screen shots of the issue.

Registered on November 20, 2003, 458 Posts, 4836 Comments

Comment posted by Rob Drummond on August 7, 2011 at 5:18 AM

Great formation Robert. Image looks a little flat IMO

cheers
Rob

Registered on November 8, 2003, 617 Posts, 8267 Comments

Comment posted by Robert Bunch on August 7, 2011 at 10:26 AM

Here is a repost. I darkened the photo and added some contrast. The original looked OK to me on my monitor but I checked it on my ipad and then I could see what everyone was talking about.The repost actually looks too dark to me on my monitor but I hope it looks better to everyone else. My monitor doesn't seem to be very accurate

Thanks for your suggestions.

Registered on May 18, 2004, 124 Posts, 2503 Comments