[Chilliman]

Does this work ? Not done much on water, ducks swans etc.

[Charlotte]

This is quite nice Chilliman

The swan's back is a bit blown (lost detail).
Could do with a bit more saturation.
The lighting's a bit flat, which is making the water very uninteresting (colour + texture-wise). You could try a bit of levels/curves.
DoF + focusing are good.
Composition is good, maybe a bit tightly cropped at the RHS.
I think including more of the swan's reflection would have added interest to the shot.

Room for improvement, but still a good shot

[Boofers]

It needs a little more space on the right side. Seems to be nice and sharp, with a little water chop at the base of the neck. Fine shot, but as said, a little flat, but that's what you see sometimes, not everythings bright and full of color.

[stepheno]

Swans are notoriously difficult to get right. A large expanse of white against, usually, a dark background. Spot metering on the swan with maybe a stop overexposed would have helped. I notice you were at 400mm - which lens did you use?

Dont' take the critique to heart, plenty of practice and lo and behold you'll have the perfect swan.

[Chilliman]

Used a 100-400 L lens to get out to it stepheno, I don't take c&c to heart otherwise I would'nt post in here, I need to remember the colours are not the same on everyone elses monitor . I don't usually shoot swans and other water birds far out on a lake/pond for the same reason you mention they can be quite difficult.

[stepheno]

Originally Posted by Chilliman

Used a 100-400 L lens to get out to it stepheno

Reason I asked is that I also have the 100-400 and I find that if I drop back to about 380 I get a sharper image.

[Chilliman]

I've noticed that too, I've only had the lens about two weeks now and still getting used to it, at times I just whack it out to full length forgetting to pull it back in a bit.