Wood Duck Wing Flap

[Melissa Groo]

Canon EOS-1D Mark IV
Gitzo Tripod/Wimberley

1/1600
5.0
ISO 640
500mm

Took this last weekend at the Chagrin ponds, Ohio. I was attending a wood duck workshop with Matthew Studebaker, which I highly recommend. He is a master at getting you in position, at understanding light, reflections, bird behavior. It was a fantastic learning opportunity for me. It didn't hurt that we had 2 lovely days, with plenty of light.
I am just beginning to wade through the couple thousand pics I took, when this one caught my eye. I did a slight crop for comp, lightened a dark area on the left, toned down the brightness of the reflection, did some selective sharpening and noise reduction, and cloned out some specular highlights on the breast.
I hope you like it. C & C very much appreciated.

[Randy Stout]

Melissa:

Sounds like Sunday was flap city!

Excellent shooting angle, I like the slight tilt of the head towards us, flying crest feathers, and wing extension.

For my eye, the breast is still a bit hot, as is the white patch on the beak.

I might consider running a multiply blend mode on those areas to gently tone them done.

Was nice meeting you, and look forward to more from your workshop.

Cheers

Randy

[girisholeti]

This is such a beautiful bird and you captured it in a lovely pose. The water drops flying around makes this image. Agree with the whites being a bit hot.

[Melissa Groo]

Thanks so much for your comments, Randy and Saptagirish. Here is a repost, tried a linear burn on it as per Artie's guide, as I wasn't sure how to do the multiply. Hope it's an improvement!
And yes, Randy, more wood duck shots to follow.... and it was really great to meet you too!

[Brendan Dozier]

Beautiful capture, Melissa, and very nicely composed. Love the flap pose, light, colors, and nice low angle. Good job on the linear burn, repost look great!

[Brendon Cremer]

Lovely image, repost is better, very well captured with lovely colours and detail:w3

[Raymond Lee]

Great capture Melissa! These ducks are gorgeous, and it's even better with some kind of action like wing flapping or flying! By the way, I thought I've seen the photos before with the exact pose, but I guess that was Matt's photo.

[Gary Esman]

Beautiful shot Melissa, nice colors, HA is sweet, got that purple patch, and the wing extension shows great detail. Waiting for more. To do a multiply layer. Create a second layer. On the top layer change it from normal to multiply. The image will be very dark. Use the brush tool on white and paint away all of the image that you do not want darkened. Then when done you can adjust the opacity to get the desired effect. Was great to meet you and hope to see many more.

Gary.

[Melissa Groo]

Beautiful shot Melissa, nice colors, HA is sweet, got that purple patch, and the wing extension shows great detail. Waiting for more. To do a multiply layer. Create a second layer. On the top layer change it from normal to multiply. The image will be very dark. Use the brush tool on white and paint away all of the image that you do not want darkened. Then when done you can adjust the opacity to get the desired effect. Was great to meet you and hope to see many more.

Gary.

Thanks so much for this lesson, Gary. I needed that! Very helpful.
Oodles more to share, only hope folks won't get bored of the woodies.

[Melissa Groo]

Great capture Melissa! These ducks are gorgeous, and it's even better with some kind of action like wing flapping or flying! By the way, I thought I've seen the photos before with the exact pose, but I guess that was Matt's photo.

Thanks Raymond! I was next to Matthew shooting down low, and I am sure we got many of the same birds and even poses. The other photo you saw was probably by Matthew, on another forum, and the bird was facing a different way (and I am sure his pic was about 10 times better as well!) He sure did help me with getting some great opportunities.

[Gary Esman]

Thanks so much for this lesson, Gary. I needed that! Very helpful.
Oodles more to share, only hope folks won't get bored of the woodies.

Nah, how can you get tired of a these beautiful ducks! Thought maybe it needed a little sharpening.

[Melissa Groo]

Nah, how can you get tired of a these beautiful ducks! Thought maybe it needed a little sharpening.

Nice job, Gary! Can you please tell what filter/settings you used for that?

[Josh Clark]

Nice wing flap shot Melissa, great job on capturing the action. Great lighting on this guy showing the purple in the cheek. Excellent detail and texture under the wings.

[Gary Esman]

Nice job, Gary! Can you please tell what filter/settings you used for that?

Sure, I only sharpened the black and whites. I changed to lab color. Hit on the lightness bar which will turn the image to black and white. Then use unsharp mask to what ever is best to your eye. change back to RGB. Done.

Gary.

[Mike Milicia]

Fantastic pose and water with excellent detail! Can't wait to see more!

The face seems a bit too light and kind of unnaturally washed out. Did you do any lightening or shadow/highlight there?
Actually, my first thought when I opened the image was that I might go back to the RAW and try converting a third stop darker overall.
That might be worth trying and might address not only the face but eliminate the need for the burn and darkening the reflection.
You might have to make a few other tweaks to Levels, etc. for the new conversion but you might like the end result even better.
But can't really know without trying. I know it has often improved images for me.

[Matthew Studebaker]

Thanks SO much for the kind words Melissa! What a beauty this photo is. Wonderful wing position, light, detail, shooting angle, and colors. A pleasure having you along!

[Dan Behm]

Melissa, It was a real pleasure meeting you, What a tremendous image you captured here, Ideal wing flap and positional pose of the bird to you and the light, Great HA with eye contact. You took full advantage here. I must say I am very envious and wish it were mine, this is just beautiful. Very much looking forward to more...

Dan

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

It's gorgeous Melissa. Thepose and nice show of the wings as well as super colors work for me. Though the repost worked a bit overall I feel the face is still a little bright to me.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Beautiful image Melissa. I love the swooping hair do. Great wingflap - I love the feather layer tiers on the wing, very nice.

[Melissa Groo]

Thank you so much, Daniel, Cheryl and Dan! Such a pleasure meeting you too, Dan B. I look forward to seeing more of your fine work!

[Melissa Groo]

Sure, I only sharpened the black and whites. I changed to lab color. Hit on the lightness bar which will turn the image to black and white. Then use unsharp mask to what ever is best to your eye. change back to RGB. Done.

Gary.

Woah! Never heard of that technique! Nice. You are a photoshop whiz for sure. Thank you!

[Melissa Groo]

Fantastic pose and water with excellent detail! Can't wait to see more!

The face seems a bit too light and kind of unnaturally washed out. Did you do any lightening or shadow/highlight there?
Actually, my first thought when I opened the image was that I might go back to the RAW and try converting a third stop darker overall.
That might be worth trying and might address not only the face but eliminate the need for the burn and darkening the reflection.
You might have to make a few other tweaks to Levels, etc. for the new conversion but you might like the end result even better.
But can't really know without trying. I know it has often improved images for me.

I might have done some shadow recovery overall at the get go, Mike. Now that you bring this to my attention, I think I have to agree with you that the face looks a bit bright. I will go back to original and try to rework it by converting a third stop darker as you say. Thanks so much for your comments and time!