Directly from camera but converted from RAW ot jpg. I know I could do better with some input,so am asking for advice on settings. This was taken directly into sun.Well overhead,but there. Because I would never get this shot twice I wonder if I set a higher ISO and maybe faste speed.Not sure. I do love that sound of click again

This is more how it looked in my eyes while being there. Photoshop adjustments

As for the higher ISO setting - I don't really see why - unless it's the slight blur of the duck itself (which I think adds to the image). It looks like you have more than enough depth of field, so if you want a slightly faster shutter speed, open the aperture a touch? Seems to me that a faster ISO will only open the door to noise. Just my opinion. Wolf (Nice grab, BTW!!)

I'm wondering if a polarizing filter could have stopped some of the haziness.

Mmmm..... I would go for a larger aperture before I changed the ISO too..... You probably wouldn't notice much change in DOF had you dropped it down a stop or two..... and even if you did the main point of focus is the bird, not the trees in the background anyway...... Really an awesome shot! Tne other thing I noticed with your settings is the WB on Auto.... I've read in many different places it's better to not use Auto WB.... many times the camera gets it wrong. Set the WB for the actual light you're using or make a custom wb profile if you have the time before you shoot.... your original image seems very blue to me which is why I mention it.

Its like they are lining up on the runway...

Will try that for sure.

Wolf - how far was the birdie from you?

Doug I am....I know you will not say the word Duck OK the birdie was about 90 to 100 yards away.

Sorry dB ... way tired, but not sleepy when I wrote that. :) Wow, almost guessed right on that one. I was thinking about 250ft or so. Anyway, yea ... I might have opened up to the max. aperture at the 30mm end. At 270-300ft, your depth of field for that shot on the D70 would have been somewhere around 90-110ft. If you had opened up to F/5.6 that would be around 55-70ft. Still a huge range that the duck would easily fit in. Would probably lose some of the foreground ripples and the treeline would be softer. Of course, most lesnes are at their best around F/8-F/11 so I might, depending on how good the lens is, also have gone up to 400 ISO. Depends really on the camera. Don't know the camera all that well. With my Canon 10D and it's low noise, I would not hesitate to go to 400 ISO in this situation. If the light was good, I'd probably go all the way to 1600 ... not great, then 800. I might go for a UV/Skylight/Haze filter over a polarizer in this instance just to keep the shutter speed up.. With the polarizer, you're looking at around a 2-stop light loss. With everything the same above your shutter speed would have dropped to 1/60 sec or so. And like 'chelle mentions, I'd get off of AutoWB. If you're under the same light as the subjects I'd probably invest $10 in a set of white/gray cards. Shoot a white card under the same light and set a custom WB from that. -=>Donald

Since he shot in RAW, does it matter what WB he chose? When importing into PS, you can choose Sunlight for instance. Try that and see what it does (since you say sunny).. looks a bit cloudy to me, so you can try that preset as well. Ofcourse the card as Donald suggested is the best way, but sometimes you just don't have the time to do that.

Suppose it is a daft question - but did you have the lens hood on ?