Mallard

[Alex Becker]

Hi all,

A mallard portrait taken this past weekend in pretty overcast conditions. Small crop, NR in photoshop, sharpened.

Camera: Nikon D500
Lens: 300 f/4 VR
Specs: 1/800 ISO 3200 f/4

Thanks for looking and commenting on prior posts!
Alex

[Noel Heustis]

Hey Alex - I really like the BG color of the water, and the placement in the frame. The detail on the bird is great, and I think the water droplets coming from the bill as well as the bubbles on the lower breast are nice bonuses.

[Isaac Grant]

A nice portrait of a very over looked subject. Details look nice, beautiful water and the water drops on the beak and the water add a bunch. Looks very good for ISO 3200. That d500 is really an excellent camera. Overall the colors look thin and the image is too bright. Image needs to be warmed up and I would crop differently. The files in flat light really need to be pushed to make them come to life.

I did the following.

In levels I lowered the black point by 7 and the mid tones by 10
I selected the bird and upped the saturation of the reds by 20 to bring more out of the red chest
I lowered the brightness -5
In Viveza I upped the warmth of the image +20
Ran a Detail extractor/tonal contrast layer at 10% opacity to bring out more details in the bird
Ran NR on background
Also I do not think the reflection added anything to the image so I lowered the bird in the frame and added canvas to get more of that beautiful warm water above. Really you could have left a little more of the reflection but I wanted to get rid of those 2 big white spots in the water so cropped to there to make it easy. Again this is not perfect when working on these tiny compressed files but it is a step in the direction the file should go.

[William Dickson]

Isaac's repost brings out richer colours throughout the image. I love the greens you captured on the head. Nice POV and HA. The water droplets add.

Will

[Dorian Anderson]

Colors certainly pop more in the reworks. This is a nice look at an oft overlooked bit. Drops coming off bill are a real pus.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Alex, great subject for the theme and I like your comp. You have captured a good HA, and I do like the greens on the head. The droplets falling from the beak certainly takes this up a few notches. Isaac's repost has shown what can be done with regards to touching up the colours/warmth.

[Arthur Morris]

Like em both. Love the water droplets and the nice clean drake. And the perfect head angle. The image design is a bit awkward for my tastes but I love everything else about the image.

with love, arite

[Alex Becker]

Thanks all -- really appreciate it. The RP looks great Isaac and thanks for including the specific steps, thats really helpful. I think I have some room above the duck so I can look at that crop as well to take care of those spots. Thanks again all, best,