American Widgeon Wing Flap

[Grace Scalzo]

Wintering ducks are arriving in good numbers on Long Island. This species is challenging to expose properly but I had good light this morning which helped (as did Nik tonal contrast and detail extractor filters :S3:)

1/2000, f 6.3, ISO800
Canon 1Dmk4, 500 f4 + lowered tripod.

[Randy Stout]

Grace:

Excellent flapping pose, well timed.

The combination of your light and post processing has revealed some very nice detail. A lot of the widgeon photos I have seen don't show much detail around the eye and in the green flash.

There are a couple of minor warm patches on the whites of the breast, that might be toned down a bit more. I have used a combination of the detail extractor filter and dark contrast filter to try and tease out a bit more detail in the whites. The latter filter looks bad when applied, but used with discretion can help.

Cheers

Randy

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

excellent shot, Grace. I agree that Wigeons aren't easy to expose. One has to protect the whites and then getting details around the eye is tough. You did very well....perfect wing position. techs are spot on.

[Gary Esman]

Beautiful wing flap here. Love the tucked in bill. Exposure looks great.

Gary.

[denise ippolito]

Grace, Wonderful wing flap and sharpness. Beautiful detail around the eye and the wings.:S3:

[Joe Senzatimore]

Great timing and exposure as well as beautiful comp. make this one for me.

[Jim Crosswell]

Great image Grace! I like the wing position, exposure and composition.

[dankearl]

They don't get much sharper and as noted, the exposure is top notch, especially the bill.
They are easy to get wrong and you got everything right here.

[Doug Brown]

Super pose with excellent sharpness. Other than a couple of hotspots, the exposure looks perfect. Good light like this makes our job a whole lot easier! :S3:

[Brendan Dozier]

Very nicely done, Grace!

[arash_hazeghi]

excellent dynamic pose and great pose, ditto the hot spot on the chest

[Ofer Levy]

Beautiful image! I think it needs a slight CW rotation - WDYT?

[christopher galeski]

verynice image of a nice duck,its all been said,nice one.thanks.

[Melissa Groo]

Beautiful image Grace with perfect exposure. You are really beginning to sell me on this Nik software! Though I think you would do just as well with whatever software you have, as I think you tend to get it right in the camera most of the time!

[Petros Petrou]

I like the pose and the sharpness. Very good job on saving the whites.

[Grace Scalzo]

I'm a little late in responding to everyone's helpful comments...work gets in the way. My hottest whites in file before I resized it and saved it for web were at 240. Sometimes bad things happen after I do that....should I bring the whites even lower before doing that, or is there a better way? Ofer, you nailed it on the rotation. I had struggled with that, your repost is perfect. Thank you. Melissa, you never see the ones that I mess up. Trust me, there are plenty. :w3 And thanks also to everyone who commented positively. I'm looking forward to duck season and more time with these beauties.

[Dan Behm]

Grace,
A really fine job with this one, Whites look great to me and a fine job with recovery. love the detail and IQ here,Its a great image. Congrats!

Dan

[Grace Scalzo]

Thank you Dan.