A Duck, a goose and a swan (Project 52 for today)

[Brownbear]

I'm working on improving my focus, exposure and composition. Today I photographed these birds and I think the duck and goose (excepting the one in flight) are pretty good? All feedback appreciated..

Nikon D80 Manual SS 1000-1250 Aperture 5.6 Exp. +1.3 iso 500 - 560



Cropped (What do you think of the crop?)



Goose in Flight


A Duck


Cropped


Swan

[Downrigger]

Lovely, sharp goose well cropped, I think! Exposure is all right if you can bring up the shadows a bit - otherwise bring up exposure entirely so we get more of that handsome mug? Just a thought.

Love the Duck - wonder if the crop could have his center of mass to left of center of photo - so he looks like there is more "going" than "having come" to his situation in the frame. I have heard it said that this bias is because we read left to right - those reading right to left reflexfly prefer impending action right of center. Of course with critters, we are pretty much at their mercy as to which way they choose to face.

[Otavio]

Hello, Christina! Nice series. They all work to me. Regarding your crop versions I prefer them over the originals. They bring the subject closer, making them more interesting, IMHO.

On the image "Goose in flight", there is a minor chromatic aberration. This can be corrected via PP (as I always say, God bless the PP). Not sure if you are familiar with this, but there is a tool under the "Lens correction" menu, if you are using photoshop. There you can select the color to correct (blue, magenta, green, etc) and set the amount of correction to apply.

Again, very nice set and thanks for sharing!

[Brownbear]

Thank you Mark and Octavio. I will try the shadows and re-cropping. And I can fix the CA in lightroom (not photoshop elements. Appreciated.

I wonder why the colours are so much richer in my relatively stationary bird photos, yet for birds in flight the colours and quality always seems to get washed out?

[geoz]

I like both cropped versions and agree with Mark's comment. Good to see you are back with the birds.
George

[Shadowman]

Title sounds like the beginning of a joke.

Nicely done, especially the duck.

[Otavio]

I wonder why the colours are so much richer in my relatively stationary bird photos, yet for birds in flight the colours and quality always seems to get washed out?

Christina,

When shooting BIF you are pointing the sensor against the sky, where there is a huge source of light backliting the subject, causing the colors to be different from when we shoot them in the ground, where the light is reflected by many elements (green grass, water, etc).

It is one of the points that make BIF shots so challenging!

Cheers!

[Bobobird]

Crops for me.

I would prefer the goose's left side a bit lighter but an "artistic" decision to keep as-is is fine too.

[Brownbear]

Thank you all.

Here is the goose lightened.. I shot at such a high iso (for my camera) that I could not lighten it very much without introducing noise. In hindsight, if I had moved a little to the left I could've avoided the shadowed left side of the face. good for me to learn!



Here is the duck re-cropped




John - Project 52 for the day because I don't like schedules, ie; one day at a time...

Thank you Octavio... Good to know for BIF... I am struggling so much with them...