Mandarin Ducks

[Ian McHenry]

An early digital picture at mid afternoon in September 2006 taken with Canon Powershot S2IS.
1/100sec @ F3.5 @ 56mm.
Ian McHenry

[Lana Hays]

Ian
I love that you got the pair. Always an interesting image to see the sexual dimorphism. I might add a little room at the top and left if you have it but otherwise this is a nice image of the pair.

[Ian McHenry]

Thanks Lana your comments are much appreciated.
Just raided my CD box and was happy to locate images from 6 September 2006.
Here first is original image area.
Ian McHenry

[Ian McHenry]

Here is latest edit.
Comments appreciated.
Ian Mc

[Lana Hays]

Ian
After seeing the original I understand why you cropped tight. I like the latest edit.....adds enough room that the ducks don't feel crowded and yet eliminates most of the "clutter". This turned out nice.

[Ian McHenry]

Cheers Lana or as they say in Bonnie Scotland "Slainte" pronounced " Slangy Var"
Ian Mc

[Ian McHenry]

I was still not quite satisfied with last edit.
The ground under the ducks was a bit messy from using the spot healing brush.
So I replaced the area by cloning to give what I feel is a more even image.
Ian Mc

[Jim Poor]

Real nice looking ducks. I might have been tempted to make to images so the focus could be on each duck and combine the two. One step farther in this image might be to clone out the foot at upper right.

[Ian McHenry]

Thanks Jim
As a new boy to to the Spot Healing Brush and Clone Stamp I have been treating them rather casually.
I now appreciate that these are great tools for fine tuning so will continue to work on this aspect of my editing.
Here is the latest.
Ian Mc

[Jim Poor]

Looks good. Once you get the clone tool mastered you'll find that there are even better ways.