Mallard Ducklings

Gallery: AvianPosted June 12, 2010182 views13 comments

I encountered this Mallard Duck family on the Credit River near Toronto. I thought it was interesting to see how closely bunched was this group. The parents were not far away but somehow had temporarily outdistanced this island of ducklings on this fast moving part of the river. [Admission: I first posted this as a Canada Goose family.....and then recalled the parents! Sure glad I discovered this before any of you did! I wonder how many of you would? Many I bet!!]

I welcome comments on any aspects of this image. In particular, I draw your attention to two of them: (i) since the outer ducklings are beyond the DOF, I increased the exposure on the central ones (especially the one in the very center) relative to the outer ones; (ii) there are plenty of specular reflections from the water. I did not attempt to tone them down in any way, my reasoning being that they show what I saw.

EOS 7D, EF 400 mm f/5.6, 580EX II flash: ISO 400, 1/1000 s, f/9.0, image is 5184 pixels x 3456 pixels (=18 MP or full frame for the 7D), some fill flash. Post processing: NR and sharpening in addition to the exposure changes.

Comments

13 comments

Comment posted by Ron Dudley on June 12, 2010 at 6:56 PM

Hey Steve, You got a nice grouping here and I like the way the head turn and nice catch light of the duckling in the middle makes it the focal point of attention. I also like your exposure technique for drawing attention away from the OOF birds - I think it works and I'd have never thought of it. The specular highlights in the water don't bother me.

Registered on March 30, 2007, 437 Posts, 10915 Comments

Comment posted by Brian Gatlin on June 12, 2010 at 9:54 PM

cool cluster of ducklings, Steve! I think that you got as much DOF as you could (quite a bit), and I like your technique for emphasizing the in focus ones. I agree with Ron, the pose of the center duck makes a nice center for attention. I do wish there weren't so many highlights, as they sort of draw my eye this way and that.

Registered on March 21, 2009, 202 Posts, 4187 Comments

Comment posted by Gary Gulash on June 13, 2010 at 12:59 AM

One of the nicest images of little ducklings on water I have ever seen Steve. Love the sparkling water in contrast to the soft ducklings. The tightness of the group is fortunate indeed. Way to go big guy!!!

Registered on January 28, 2005, 879 Posts, 12098 Comments

Comment posted by Jim DeWitt on June 13, 2010 at 2:08 AM

Serious cute factor, Steve. Nice. Your exposure works; I have to think about it to see the peripheral birds.

Registered on August 28, 2006, 1240 Posts, 8506 Comments

Comment posted by Bill Maile on June 13, 2010 at 8:38 AM

Nice Steve, I like this a lot. Great job!

Registered on March 2, 2009, 984 Posts, 2518 Comments

Comment posted by Monica Siri on June 13, 2010 at 9:02 AM

Steve,
I always love to see new generations and you captured them so well. Nice trick for drawing attention to the central one. Well done!

Registered on September 20, 2009, 132 Posts, 3764 Comments

Comment posted by Cheryl Molennor on June 13, 2010 at 5:24 PM

The fill flash worked nice on this. I like the technique as well

Registered on June 30, 2009, 300 Posts, 5051 Comments

Comment posted by Mia McPherson on June 13, 2010 at 5:24 PM

Steve,

I like your thought process and the technique you used tp put focus on the central ducklings. I don't mind the specular highlights, I think they give the image a nice feel. A different but I think appealing image.

Registered on June 25, 2007, 491 Posts, 12566 Comments

Comment posted by Nate Chappell on June 13, 2010 at 8:11 PM

I like what you've done to emphasize the center bird and I don't mind the specular highlights. Nice job with the fill as well. I think I would have picked the forward duck in the large group as my focal point and tried to stop down enough to get the whole group (except for the one on the right) in focus.

Registered on February 1, 2006, 1158 Posts, 19528 Comments

Comment posted by Steve Balke on June 14, 2010 at 12:35 PM

Thank you all for your responses. As usual, they are all very helpful to me. I found it particularly interesting that using exposure to lessen the DOF limitations in this image was received positively as were the specular highlights in the water and the use of fill flash here. I find these things so difficult to judge for me working alone. Nate's suggestion of using the forward duck as the focal point and obtaining more DOF sounds good too. However, for this shot the group was only together for a few seconds: my quick decision was to focus on the center duck. Also, the 7D was able to take several shots but the flash only had time to fire for the first one. The fill flash certainly made a noticeable difference.

Registered on June 18, 2009, 229 Posts, 2915 Comments

Comment posted by David Sparks on June 14, 2010 at 7:38 PM

Steve:
I agree with your decision to leave the specular reflections and I like your way of coping with the ducklings beyond the DOF. Usually, we try to eliminate the distracting elements, but making changes than draw attention to the elements of interest has a similar effect. Neat shot and presentation.

Registered on May 26, 2007, 290 Posts, 4270 Comments

Comment posted by Derrick Lipinski on June 15, 2010 at 1:42 AM

Nicely presented, Steve. Emphasis on the middle ducklings worked very well here; highlights don't bother me. The 400mm f/5.6 has got to be one of my favorite lenses - a really great walk-around telephoto.

Registered on October 5, 2007, 58 Posts, 2039 Comments

Comment posted by Steve Balke on June 20, 2010 at 1:11 PM

Thank you for the additional comments, David and Derrick. Good to see that they reinforce the conclusions. Also, Derrick, after quite a bit of trial and error I find myself using the 400 mm prime as my favorite "walking around" lens too.

Registered on June 18, 2009, 229 Posts, 2915 Comments