Mallard Drake Landing

[Marlo Casabar]

The Village Creek Drying Beds in Arlington, TX have been filled with migrating ducks. Hundreds of Pintails and Gadwalls. Lesser numbers of Ring-necked, Widgeon, Bufflehead and the ever present Mallard.

This day - 11/29/2016 - the wind was from the south and I was facing North. The photo was underexposed because I had been shooting Pintails with direct rising sun lighting them up, when I saw this Mallard landing towards me. It landed in an area of the bed with quite a bit of shadow. With the help of the DPP book by Arash and Art, I did my best to edit the photo and bring it to a better exposure.

Canon 7D MkII 600mm f/4L IS II USM with 1.4x III
1/4000 f/5.6 ISO 1250

Thanks again for all comments and suggestions,
Marlo

[David Salem]

Nice landing pose you caught this handsome drake in Marlo. Looks like being underexposed, and trying to bring it back, left to much grain(noise) in the image. So much so that it gives the image a soft focused look to it. I know you did the best you could, but a lot of times (most), it is futile to spend time on an image and get a good clean result.
This is the main reason you need to try get it right in camera.
Keep up the good work and it will come in time.

[arash_hazeghi]

I agree with Dave, the 7D MKII cannot handle underexposure well, here the IQ has suffered too much to make this a keeper. the best approach is to get the exposure right in the camera.

best

[Marlo Casabar]

Thank you David and Arash. You are both so right. I need to let go of photos that I "wish" I had gotten right and work on my in camera skills.

I appreciate the candid advice,
Marlo