Nature Photographers Network
This is the preserved archive of the original Nature Photographers Network. The community continues at naturephotographers.network.
Forums · UKNP

Shoveler in flight

Discussion

9 replies
Posted by Rob McEwen on May 13, 2009 at 4:30 PM
Hello all,

I'd be grateful for your comments on my shot of drake shoveler in flight please.
I must acknowledge the help of the local territorial, aggressive coot who insisted on chasing any bird that encroached onto his patch :wink:

Tech details
D90 300mm F4
f7.1 ISO320 -0.3 EV

Thanks in advance,
RM
Posted by Craig Jones on May 13, 2009 at 5:18 PM
Nice flight shot, and the colours are nice, you have posted this 500 pixals on the longest side rob you can go up to 720, I know, my first pose was tiny, :frown: :frown: nice flight shot :wink: :wink: :wavey:
Posted by John Robinson on May 13, 2009 at 5:19 PM
Prefer to see this bigger Rob.
Looks a little over sharpened but maybe the small size is emphasising it.Nice shot though.JohnR
Posted by Paul Hobson on May 13, 2009 at 5:21 PM
Nice image, the wings are in a good position and the veg at the top gives it a lake feel. Nice blue water too.
Paul Hobson
Posted by Lewis Thomson on May 13, 2009 at 5:51 PM

Looks great, would love to see it larger! :smile:

Cheers,

Lewis.
:toast:
Posted by Ian Mason on May 13, 2009 at 6:39 PM
Looks great! Maybe a little bright, but difficult to tell at this size - hope you will repost a bit bigger.
Posted by Rob McEwen on May 14, 2009 at 2:25 AM
Thanks for the comments. I seem to be having problems with the image size; I've been trying to post at 720 pixels.
I'm using Flickr because I get an error message when I try to use an image hosted on my own site.
Any suggestions ?

Cheers,
Rob

PS The link to the image is here
Posted by David Sewell on May 14, 2009 at 4:28 AM
Hi Rob,

I have had a look at the slightly larger version, nice colours and the bird is well positioned within the frame. My only issue is with the contrast, the whites on the plumage do seem to be rather blown. Perhaps reducing the contrast would help, but white is never easy in bright sunshine, which I assume was what you took the shot in.

David
Posted by PhilH on May 14, 2009 at 5:52 AM
Larger looks better but have to agree on the blown Highlights (could be down to compression), would try to get rid of the specular highlight above the ducks back.

:toast: :wavey: :toast:
Posted by Rob McEwen on May 14, 2009 at 3:25 PM
Thanks for the advice - I agree I was a bit heavy-handed with the post-processing. I was careful not to clip the highlights on the histogram whn I got the shot though. I've re-done the photo HERE.

PhilH, I'm a bit new to post-processing so would be grateful for some advice about how to go about touching up things like specular highlights. I'm on a Mac and have Aperture, PSE6 and GIMP but don't have access to CS2/3/4.

Thanks,
RM