Hooded Merganser Pair

Another from Sunday. These two were pretty satisfied with their location. They were there on both my loops and it takes me two hours to do a loop. This was from the first encounter. Even though they look reasonably close together I got to f/16 without getting them both in focus together so this is a composite.

Specific Feedback Requested

Anything. How does the composite look-any glaring discrepancies?

Technical Details

Is this a composite: Yes
Sony A7Riv, FE200-600 @ 600 mm, beanbag on car window. These were adjacent images, both at f/11, 1/640, iso 1600, manual exposure. Processed in LR & PS CC. The base image is the one with the female in focus. I selected the male, its perch and its reflection in that image and erased them. I selected the same area of the image with the male in focus, copied and pasted it into the base image. there was a bit of mismatch around the edges because the male had shifted position slightly. I used content aware fill to fill the empty space and then merged layers, did a bit of cleanup and continued with normal processing. The image was straightened and cropped to 6381x4758. Taken at 8:40 am on February 28th.

1 Like

Another unique image. Anytime I see these birds they are going the other way. Well done to gte the pair perched.
The composite and processing look good. Good reflections also. I wonder if it gets too tight to take a bit off the top and simplify the bg some.

Hi Dennis, very well done on the processing including the reflection - I would think that would be quite tricky. These ducks are quite photogenic and you captured them in their habitat quite well (including the black and white exposure). No nits from me - well done.

Nice job on the exposure and behavior. Good composition. Here’s a place where being in your car is a disadvantage from the standpoint of angle.

@David_Schoen Yeah. I keep thinking I want a van with floor level shooting ports in the back.