Christ Troupis
April 2025 - Coquette
About the Image(s)
I photographed this wood duck while she was sitting on a half submerged log in a thicket. There was very little clearance for the shot and the bottom third of the frame was obscured by brush.
1/500th, f/9 ISO 1600 at 840mm. Based on comments of others in the study group, I realized that last month, my photo's background was too busy and distracting so for this shot, I tried to crop the duck closely and reduce the highlights and exposure. I wanted a muted and soft feel to the duck to bring out the richness of her feathers. I used a linear gradiant to darken the lower left corner slightly.
3 comments posted
Christ - I think you did a nice job in reducing highlights and getting the exposure right and image has an ethereal feel to it. However, dark draws the eye as much as does bright and the uneven background is distracting; and did you really want to "blend out" the tail feathers? Having said that getting this as sharp as you did with excellent detail in that environment using an 840mm focal length is just outstanding. Posted: 04/08/2025 15:09:39
I love wood ducks, and this image is gorgeous! The fine, iridescent feathers set against the softest complementary background is exquisite. I find the top right corner a little distracting, but the image still shines!! Posted: 04/15/2025 19:02:04
Great focus and color, too bad the brush obsured the botton of the photograph. Posted: 04/20/2025 18:01:58