Full Mallard Color Palette

[Randy Stout]

From this morning. This handsome drake gave me a nice take off pose, and I was pleased to see a nice display of all his colors: yellow,green,brown, blue and orange. It was quite dull when I took this, but the colors came up well.

D4 600VR f/5.6 1/1000s ISO 1000 Manual exposure Gitzo/Wimberley SB-900 with Better Beamer

Post: Selective sharpening, detail extractor on tail. The original was very tight, no clipping, but I had to add canvas on all four sides. Cleaned up the large catchlight

Advice and comments always appreciated.

Funny side story: A gentleman I had seen once before came up and asked about my flash. I had the Better Beamer on, and it turns out that he was Walt Anderson, the inventor of the Better Beamer. Sometimes it is a small world!

Cheers

Randy



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[dankearl]

The colors are very nice!
I think it needs a bit more contrast and 1/1000 is just not quite enough for ducks, IMO.

[Randy Stout]

Thanks Dan:

I realized I miss typed the shutter speed. The ISO was 1000, but the shutter speed was in reality 1/2000s, still a bit lower than my preferred setting for ducks in close, but I just didn't have quite enough light to work with.

While looking at the picture above, I saw a parting line where I added canvas, so corrected that and did a slight decrease in brightness, and a little increase in contrast.

Cheers

Randy

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Great pose and excellent exposure control. I love the eye contact and the gorgeous iridescence captured and the fact that there are no shadows.
A large, square catchlight such as this sometimes gives the appearance of lack of sharpness. Although that's not the case here, I'd make it just a tad smaller & rounder.
Very nice image, Randy.

PS: just read from your description that you already cleaned up the catchlight. I think I'd go a bit further with it.

[Troy Lim]

Stunning image for sure. Love the wing position. Amazing work.

[Satish Ranadive]

Randy Sir:
Magnificent take off pose captured.
Love the pose with curved feathers of wings and tail,colors,especially green on head and neck.
Beautiful composition too.

Regards,
Satish.

[Doug Brown]

A winner Randy! I prefer the added contrast in the repost.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Randy, love the flight pose with the forward wing position, and nice separation of the head too. Certainly lots of colours to look at, and the 'low' light shows them up nicely. Your repost is even better. Well captured.

[PhilCook]

Another vote for the added contrast in the repost, stunning color and great wings...almost a snap of David Salem's similar shot earlier

[vishaljadhav]

The colours are stunning , the added surrounding canvas makes the image far wonderful
Action is very nicely captured here

[stuart wanuck]

Just lovely!

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Randy,

Love the wing position, and really like that you can see the entire head with the wings stretched that far out. I don't think timing could have been any better.

The light background really lets you focus on the colors and textures of the duck, which I rather enjoy.

Do you mind commenting on the flash setting (from what I've read, most people shoot it in TTL @ -2 1/3 EV).

Neat that you got the chance to meet Walt Anderson! Did he ask you why you had that funny thing at the end of your flash? Would have been funny :)

Miguel

[Randy Stout]

Thanks everyone for the comments! Much appreciated.

Miguel: The flash was actually set at 0. With this shutter speed and distance to the subject, the amount of light actually reaching the subject, even with the better beamer, is quite small, and it mainly gives a little pop to the colors and a catchlight.

Cheers

Randy

[Chad Caswell]

Good looking shot Randy, Nice job with the eye :w3

Colors look nice and bright yet not over the top.

Nice chatting with you on Saturday.

Chad

[Daniel Cadieux]

Oh yeah Randy, this is a fabulous Mallard in flight image! I liked the OP, but the repost just adds that extra oomph. Love those colours and perfect pose.

[Marina Scarr]

Terrific mallard in flight and the RP works better for me. Love that pose and the colors just pop off of the screen.

[Karl Egressy]

A beautiful bright colourful image with excellent wing position, Randy. Great work. The repost is and improvement.

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Repost is a dynamite image and I would like to capture one like it. I really like the wing feathers curling up as well as the usul curled tail feathers. Great colors too

[arash_hazeghi]

excellent dynamic pose! light was soft and nice too

[Sachin Saraf]

Terrific Flight shot...Love the re post...excellent, light, pose visible feet...Wow!

[David Salem]

Very nice Randy. Love the extended wing position and the color shown on them. Exposure looks nice and the detail is well captured. Beautiful duck IF shot.