First Bufflehead

Hi Jerry,

Looks pretty good and I like the pose with the head colors. I don't know if you can pull out any more details from the whites as my only suggestion.................Jim

Congratulations on getting close to this guy Jerry. These guys are skittish everywhere, so don't feel bad. I like the pose of this one, but have a couple of nits on this. It looks like it needs a bit of a CCW rotation (maybe 5 degrees or so). Also, the spots of the whites are a bit hot. Especially on the head. I have photographed these guys a lot in the last couple of years and they are very tough to get a good exposure on. In my opinion, the hardest of the ducks. In GOOD light, I am normally about -2/3 to -1 in my exposure comp on evaluative. With he 7D MII, it seems to overexpose about 1/3 to begin with, so might even try -1 1/3 with it. (This holds even more true when you have dark reflections in the water like you have here, because the metering on evaluative will of course account for this and decrease your SS.) I then make the adjustments on the darks in post processing to help the eye stand out. But you have to get them looking toward the light to make it work still, otherwise the eye still gets lost. You might very well know all of this stuff, if so please disregard...but just in case you or someone else looking does not, thought I should state it.

Kurt,

Thanks for the critique. I too find the bufflehead, hard to expose properly. If they are not facing the light, their head is like a black hole. I hope I am able to get a little closer to these guys so my IQ goes up.

Jerry

Seems to be a run of "tough to catch" birds. I agree that a ccw rotation is in order, of several degrees. The crop size really shows up in the large image, which might be made less obvious with some selective NR of the water.

This is a nice photo of the bufflehead Jerry. Sounds like Kurt gave you some great advice. The water is beautiful. I've never been lucky enough to see one of these so I like it when I see them posted. Thanks for sharing!

Hi Jerry I too like the pose and colors in this fine composition..I find Kurts comment very helpful. thanks for sharing this bufflehead


Albert Darmo
Canada

Jerry,
Thank you for posting this image. I see Buffleheads more often here in California, and they are very frustrating to shoot. They are one of the more shy birds and it is difficult to get close. They have wonderful iridescence in their dark head and neck feathers, but getting that to show without blowing the whites is a challenge. Kurt gave you wonderful advice, much more expansive than I could have. So, I don't want to pile on giving input duplicated by others. Keep posting, and commenting. Happy New Year.