Goldeneye along the hibernal waterways

[Jack Breakfast]

Greetings! I am addicted to the taking of winterduck pictures in the beautiful sunless low-light, but so doing will sometimes make the colors of my ducks go wonky. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about! Especially if you're familiar with this species, I would welcome your opinions RE her color balance. Of course I'd love to hear from you RE anything else too. I sincerely appreciate your time and trouble! This picture was taken with the Canon 7D and 100-400 at 400mm. iso1600, 1/1250, f5.6. I was switching between iso800 and 1600, but for the most part wanted my shutter speed up so as to catch the duck mid-dive, although in my experience 1/1250 doesn't cut it anyhow.

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The alar's mysteries will unravel but can never be solved: http://www.smallbirdsongs.com

[Jonathan Ashton]

Looks very nice to me, I attach a version for your consideration, I just went to Levels, clicked the white balance on her wing tip and brought the blacks a tad to the right and applied a small amount of sharpening.

[Jack Breakfast]

Very nice, Jonathan! My sincere thanks for your corrections and also for the lesson. I am only just beginning to find enjoyment in the art of "simple but effective processing" - for a few years I found post-processing to be a chore, albeit an essential one. As I continue to learn more, things become more pleasurable. As is the way with everything in life!

[Jack Breakfast]

Uh-oh! I just realized now that there's a bad mess along the bottom ice, the result of some very sloppy burning work! How did I miss this? I don't have time to fix it now, but please excuse my badness! I was making circles, for some reason??

[William Dickson]

I like this image Jack and I think Jon's version makes it that wee bit better. I like the birds movement through the icy water. The reflection adds to the image. Thanks for sharing

[Jonathan Ashton]

Jack the burning looks messy to you because you did it! I bet most people did not notice it.

[Jack Breakfast]

Much appreciated, John. Truly I don't know what I got up to, making weird circles like that. But anyhow I just now learned about the Tim Grey dodge and burn, and I am a convert! ALSO, if anyone is interested, I did post this picture in its unaltered version on the "Eager to Learn" forum so that I might brush up on my basic object-removal skills. Different ways of achieving the same thing, etc.