Used a circular polarizer filter to reduce the glare of the water which in turn gave it a somewhat starry effect. Focal length 70.0mm in sports mode.
Cropped a little off the left & resized. I did enhance the color of the water, I have to admit. Added a blue/grey color at about 30% opacity as the water was a real dull grey/brown color. Used the healing tool to get rid of a few dust spots. No adjustments to the duck were made other than a slight curves adjustment to the whole picture. Lastly ran through Neatimage to get rid of some noise in the water.
Statistics
Place: 68 out of 310 Avg (all users): 6.1902 Avg (commenters): 7.6154 Avg (participants): 6.1970 Avg (non-participants): 6.1731 Views since voting: 1961 Votes: 184 Comments: 19 Favorites: 4 (view)
Just found this in your portfolio. This is outstanding. I love all of the sparkle on the rich blue water. He's raring his head back as if to say "Look at me." Really nicely done.
Thanks for all the helpful comments everyone! As for what kind of duck this is, I had no idea. Did a quick internet search and I think it may be a Muscovy? There were a few of them at the park. As far as a star filter, didn't use one. Was just a happy accident that I think may have been emphasized by the circular polarizer. It was the first time I had used it and really liked the results.
How you didn't place in the top 5 or the top 3 is beyond me? I'm starting to regret having joined this site. It seems that the majority of tastes here prefer traditional regurgitated stock photography - as well as cliche images. Nothing inventive or original appears to be recognized or respected. It's a bit of a joke really. I mean anyone can take a decent telephoto lens and get close to a parrot and snap a pic but what you have done is add some impressionism and life to the billions and I mean billions of photos of birds out there.
Nice shot, good affect with the water stars. I think that having more room in front of him and less behind, even cropping a bit off the rear end would have improved the composition.
Your 6pt star filter effect is overpowered this picture because there are so many points of light to interact with. In the future to lessen this consider going to a lower f-stop to decrese the effect - best way is bracket you r shots between F2.8 and F5.6 when taking them. Another option is invest in the more expensive Tiffen Holloywood Fx, Hyper Star or Vector Star - these three filters give a great star effect, but, it's not all uniform throughout the picture. I own all of them and prefer the Hyper Star. I use allot of star filters shooting ice art. Hope this helps.
Add photograph to your favorites
Add photographer to your favorites
Photographer found comment helpful.
