Duck on the docks...

[poker]

I wanted this to work so badly. How could I have improved the shot?

[SmartWombat]

aim a little higher, put the duck a bit lower in the image
aiming for the duck at the top right 1/3

step to the right, and put the duck's head against the light
at the moment it's against the shadow from a reflection of a tree on the water


The lines of the decking leading to the duck is good, pointing straight at the subject.

[Ellies123]

Hi there
I've not taken ANY decent photos - yet !
So please feel free to ignore my suggestions ! lol

Could you have stepped to the right - or would you have been left standing in the water ?
Just so the vanishing point of the weathered wooden planks was centred a little, then drop down a bit to get the duck's eye view ?

Good shot though - I love the 'feel' of the wood.... take some more - with a duck or duckless - either way it looks great

:thumbsup:

[drg]

Manacsa,

Paul, Smart Wombat, has several good suggestions regarding compostion particularly regarding where to place the duck. I'd also suggest, that compositionally the straight lines of the dock if altered will also change the feel of the photograph. A little more tilt or side to side angling of the lens will introduce some distortion which will alter, as was suggested, the vanishing point which can positively effect the image.

Straight lines usually imply strength. As this is possibly a more serene photo, you might want to get lower so the line sweep in to the duck and even have some horizon above and behind. This would be great if there was some sky in the image. Generally there's probably too much dock for this to work. Of course a little editing can fix that!

A quick glance say that cropping just below the cleat might make this one work more as you wish?

Was the duck napping or could you tell?

[Anbesol]

you know, this is a time where maybe nearly dead center might just work. you have two different backgrounds - the dock and the water, so dead center may work. plus, you have a complimenting eliment - the moorings (the boat tie down things), which also help to balance out that dead centeredness of the shot.


I think the dock seems to prominent in this particular framing, and it overpowers teh subject. also, i think the light ont he dock is a bit harsh, maybe you could have exposure compensated for that, but not to the point that youve totally lost all detail. Checking out the histogram, you could have definitely -2/3 EV comp, but nothing a bit of photoshop cant fix.

I hope you dont mind i did a bit of shop on this one. I added a 20% deep red filter to compensate for white balance, i corrected for highlight detail (you can see more detail in the wood), and i made it square - which i think is an awesome shot! definitely a cool angle you shot manacsa!

actually, i changed my mind, no filter was better...

[Galningen]

i think less DOF would be really nice.

[poker]

Thanks for all the suggestions.

It would've been possible to take one step to the right and not be under water. This really would've helped the ducks head to be against the white reflection of the water. I wish I did.

I could not shoot the duck at a lower angle or else we would've seen the sidewalk on the other side of the water. This particular angle was the best to keep the it all water, dock and duck. I could not get sky without getting sidewalk.

I did take a version with straight lines but it didn't appeal to me as much. Maybe I'll post it later.

Anbesol, interesting tech analysis. No filter is better as the red got into the duck and water. The square crop works as drg also said the picture might have too much dock.

Oh yeah, I could not get much lower on any of my latest DUCK shots because I would've been riddled with bird crap from the ground

Thanks everyone....I'll go back soon and try some more.