Drake Wood Duck

[John Flynn]

http://johnflynnphotos.smugmug.com/Drake-Wood-Duck-101714/i-BbJff6C/0/X2/_10T0173-2-X2.jpg

Canon 1DX with 600 F4 IS II and 1.4 TC, ISO 2000, 1/320s, F5.6 HH. Crop for composition, Gaussian blur and NR on background, removed distracting yellow flowers in background and some debris in the water was also removed. I had a hard time maintaining detail in the blacks and the whites at the same time. It was taken in the shade at about 10 AM. I'm not sure if it was the lighting conditions or the higher ISO or a bit of both. C+C welcome, enjoy!

johnflynnphotos.smugmug.com

[Ian Cassell]

Hi, John.

I love these guys and yours is a handsome specimen! I think the light (lack thereof) was working against you here with some loss of detail. I also wonder if a bit more DOF would have helped as the focus, to me, looks like it is on the wing and not on the face.

[Diane Miller]

What was your processing? A raw file?

Check the histogram -- it looks like the blacks could be brought down (darker) a little more, and the whites up. That will give more contrast. A slightly warmer white balance maybe good, too. There is a tan cast in some of the the whites -- that shouldn't be. There are ways to get the max detail from light tones and if that isn't enough, it's not good to lower them to a gray or the like, especially if it is a global adjustment that affects the rest of the image, even if subtly. (I have a tutorial in Educational Resources on bringing out detail in whites.)

And it needs some clockwise rotation.

This looks like a very nice image and worth going back to the raw file for better tonal correction.

[Don Lacy]

Hi John, I love Wood Ducks and for once had some free time this morning so I could play around with this to show you its potential with some processing tweaks. Diane was dead on her critique and what the histogram was showing, when I open the image up in PS the histogram had a large amount of empty space towards the right showing that their was no information in the highlights or brighter tones of the image thus the dark or muddy overall look to the image. A quick levels adjustment fixed that by pulling the triangle on the far right of the adjustment towards the middle it brought the highlights and middle tones to their proper levels, I also adjusted the darker tones by pulling the far left triangle slightly to the middle. Now that the overall tonality of the image was set I thought the mid tones could use just a little bit more so I added a slight curve adjustment to brighten them by pulling the middle of the curve up slightly. So at this point I was pretty happy with most of the tones in the image but felt the beak was a little bright so i toned that down with a curve adjustment and a layer mask. I also felt The darker areas could use a little more detail so i used another curve adjustment and mask to brighten them just a touch. To finish the images I added a slight amount of mid tone contrast and sharpen the duck on another layer with a mask to apply the sharpening to the duck only. Forgot to mention I fixed the rotation issue also.

[Don Lacy]

Here is a screen shot of the histogram of the original post notice the empty space on the right of the graph, it is followed by a shot of the histogram after the levels adjustment notice how there is information from the left to the right without any clipping for most images this should be goal for a well balanced histogram. I also included a shot of my layers pallet to give you an ideal of what i did.

[Diane Miller]

Good corrections, Don!

[John Flynn]

First I wanted to say THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR THE HELPFUL CRITIQUES! Sorry I haven't been responding, life has been pretty busy. I am going to try to finish up the changes right now but I may not get it done before this ferry lands/my laptop battery dies. I should be able to get to it tomorrow though. Thanks again, John.

[John Flynn]

http://johnflynnphotos.smugmug.com/Drake-Wood-Duck-101714-2/i-fTL733s/0/X2/_10T0173-2-3-X2.jpg

How's this?

[Don Lacy]

Much better John maybe a little bright in the mids on my monitor.

[Diane Miller]

I agree on the mids -- could come down a squeak. What first caught my eye, and I still see here, is a tannish flat tone on the highlight on the bill and the vertical stripe ahead of the wing. Did you "burn down" those areas? (Or do low-opacity cloning there?) Sometimes whites are just beyond recovery but going flat with them doesn't really help the appearance.

[John Flynn]

I did bring the bill down but not the stripe. I cannot see the difference on this monitor... I guess it needs recalibration and it may just not work well with the contrast on the whites. It is an IPS but may not be ideal. I can see it by monitoring the colors in lightroom however. I pulled up all the whites a bit as a way to compensate for the gray in the bill and front stripe. Hopefully that works. I dropped the mid tones a bit but to be honest I like them a bit brighter but I know you guys are the experts and again my monitor may need a recalibration.
http://johnflynnphotos.smugmug.com/Drake-Wood-Duck-101714-2/i-fTL733s/0/X2/_10T0173-2-3-X2.jpg

[Diane Miller]

I'm still not sure of your processing (apologies if it's in the fine print above). Were your modifications done by going back to the raw file or by making corrections on a PS file?

You can only get the best detail in the lightest tones by going back to a raw file and working carefully in the raw processor, and depending on the exposure, it may not be possible to bring out detail.

Was it a raw file (I assume so with a 1DX!), and what raw processor?

I have some information on bringing out detail in whites in a tutorial in Educational Resources. But that may not be relevant to this particular image -- I can't tell by just looking at it.

[John Flynn]

I'm still not sure of your processing (apologies if it's in the fine print above). Were your modifications done by going back to the raw file or by making corrections on a PS file?

You can only get the best detail in the lightest tones by going back to a raw file and working carefully in the raw processor, and depending on the exposure, it may not be possible to bring out detail.

Was it a raw file (I assume so with a 1DX!), and what raw processor?

I have some information on bringing out detail in whites in a tutorial in Educational Resources. But that may not be relevant to this particular image -- I can't tell by just looking at it.

I converted with dpp 4 and I do remember messing with the lights aggressively to pull detail. I guess I have to go back to the raw file as the modifications were done to a Photoshop file.

[Diane Miller]

Absolutely go back to the raw. Once tonalities are glued into a PS file there is a real limit to what you can do.

Would love to see the next effort. You found a great subject!

[John Flynn]

http://johnflynnphotos.smugmug.com/Drake-Wood-Duck1017144/i-jZrv5qz/1/X2/_10T0173-3-2-X2.jpg

Here's my next shot. I reworked it from DPP. I did selectively try to bring some detail back into the bill. Hopefully that did not cause it to go gray again. I also warmed it up a bit, seemed like a nicer effect.

[Diane Miller]

Much better! That's probably all you can do with the light on the bill.