Randall Gusdorf
November 2023 - Elder Duck in Iceland
Original
About the Image(s)
I shot this picture in July 2023 in Northern Iceland. It was taken early morning at around 7:30am, albeit at this month in Iceland there is never dark. It was taken with a Fujifilm X-H2 with a telephoto zoom 50-140mm 2.8 lens, taken at 140mm (equivalent full frame 210mm), iso 1000, f4.5, 1/2500s. I processed it minimally in Lightroom, used Lightroom Enhance, and then Topaz AI. I took the picture while standing on the back deck of the hotel, and I spent many hours taking bird shots. While I have many clear and sharp close up bird pictures, I picked this because of the background context and the way the bird pops from the background.
This round’s discussion is now closed!
6 comments posted
Randall, The common Eider Duck is one of the most valuable birds of Iceland with eiderdown having being collected and exported since many centuries. It is one of the sea ducks species. On my last visit to Iceland, we went on a boat to a private island which is an eider ducks sanctuary.
Your image is showing a flying female eider. Yes, according to your description the birds looks like popping out of the frame, and the soft background shows location. I think that a tighter crop would make the bird stand out better without sacrificing the location.
I came across this very explanatory video about the eider ducks in Iceland.
https://youtu.be/lk1OfeIwWVw Posted: 11/02/2023 12:03:31
Your image is showing a flying female eider. Yes, according to your description the birds looks like popping out of the frame, and the soft background shows location. I think that a tighter crop would make the bird stand out better without sacrificing the location.
I came across this very explanatory video about the eider ducks in Iceland.
https://youtu.be/lk1OfeIwWVw Posted: 11/02/2023 12:03:31
Randall, I like your presentation but I think Isaac's crop really makes the image look three dimensional. I thought the house with building structure with the red rooftop in the background was a little distracting and Isaac's crop took care of it. Beautiful bird. I am adding it to my list of birds to photograph. Posted: 11/02/2023 15:28:05
Randall, I like the detail of the Eider Duck and think it could be a close-up. Using topaz Gigapixel AI, I increased the pixels/resolution 4X. Then I cropped it. Let me know if you like the results. Jim Posted: 11/03/2023 10:07:51
Jim, thank for your input. I do like the crop a lot, but I don't like to over sharpen birds, and this version does that, and it has hallows around the edges; thus, a mixed bag, but good suggestions. Posted: 11/03/2023 10:13:14
As is usually the case, Isaac's cropping is spot on. Just a few minor changes really helped bring the focus on the bird, while also continuing to provide the environmental setting to illustrate its habitat. Posted: 11/08/2023 07:30:06
I agree the cropped version does bring out the details of the duck against the beautiful color of the water. Even though your duck was quite far away you still managed to capture the details nicely. Posted: 11/26/2023 18:53:22