Australian Wood Duck

[Nicole]

I went for a drive after work to a new wetland site that i'd heard about. I came across this Australian Wood duck. The sun was starting to set.



Took this with a Sigma 100-300 + 1.4x @ F5.6

[christiand]

Nicole,

a very fine shot. I like the choice of focus that you made.
The DOF is almost perfect, very very cool.
(great way you covered the subject, is the head of the duck slightly going off the DOF ? or is it my eyesight ? Sorry for being a pain in the a...)

Cheers
CTD

[sirhc55]

Hi Nicole - like your photo but what PP did you do on it?

Cheers

Chris

[Vicareyus]

Nicole
I like the shot. Agree - nice DOF in particular makes the body stand out. I think if you cropped a lot of the background out and came in closer on the duck it would be visually more impressive. Maybe also processing a bit to bring the head out from the background (but I'm no pp expert - I just stumble along in PP Elements!)
Vic

[sirhc55]

Hi Nicole

Just try a little more contrast - play around with a duplicate image so you don’t lose the original

Cheers


Chris

[Greg B]

Nice shot Nicole.

Where is the wetland site?

[Nicole]

Thanks for the comments. The duck was almost at the top of a little rise and the background was trees/sky in the distance. I couldn't get close enough with the lens so the photo is already cropped about 50%. It's unfortunate about the dark background and the head. If it was lighter i think it might stand out a bit more.

Chris, I did the usual levels, sharpening etc and blurred the background a bit more. After the crop I cloned out a small patch of blue sky. I've been playing with cloning the colours near the bill to make the head stand out a bit more. Still not happy so might play around some more again after work.

Greg, do you know Braeside Park in the SE? There is an industrial estate next door called Woodlands Estate. The site is in this estate on Lakewood Blvd. On the melways (newer editions) it's called Environmental Wetland Area.