Mallard Drake

Another experiment aimed at creating a painterly effect. The base image is from 2011, including processing (which in hindsight, I really should have started with a fresh version as the original displays a slight sharpening halo). The intent was to transform the background from mottled greens and taupes to reflect more of the color range found in the Drake with a more diffused effect, as if fog were rising from the water.

3 Shadowhouse textures for color, texture and tone. (Purple clouds, antique paper and grunged art texture) Varying opacities and blend modes. (one of these days I'll learn how to screen capture the PS workspace)
Topaz clarity, 65% on multiply
mixer brush used to introduce the foreground grasses
PS Canvas texture 60%


As always, C&C welcome and appreciated.

Wonderful treatment of a wonderful shot! So often these birds in flight seem to be looking right at you. Is it the Mona Lisa effect??

Love the idea of making the BG into harmonious colors. The darks look a little heavy, but lightening them could be a slippery slope without going back to the original. They can hold up to the drama here. Well done!

I like the resulting background and the colors. It all blends together nicely. Good choice of textures.

This great image of the drake is certainly one worth playing with. I really like the subtle texture you added as foreground grasses. It works very well with the water spray. The dark bkgd tones with the highlights add nice drama & blend beautifully.

Very dynamic image. I like that the drake is just a little above the viewers' eye giving it a great sense of motion and flying away. I especially like the wings. I might be tempted to clone out the semi-circular line in the URC.

Nice job on this Randall, I really like the color palette and the selective focus on the head. A little trick I learned years ago for removing halos is to use a very tiny brush with the blur tool and just paint over the area. Then you can also use a tiny brush and dodge the highlights along the same area. This works pretty well and allows you to keep the sharpening where you want it.

Love the eye contact, and approach angle. Great shot. Mallards are beautiful!

Thanks everyone for taking the time to respond, your thoughts and comments are always appreciated.

Diane, I'll play with it some more-I don't know why but every time I process this image, I let the dark tones take over. The bird is in fairly bright sun, most of the bg is in shade.

Judy, Nancy, your work posted here has given me several ideas. I didn't realize there were so many brushes in the CS6 cache, and I'm finding out there are a lot on the web too! :)

Jackie, Mitch-thanks- I have quite a few Mallards in flight, while this one isn't the sharpest, (50% crop) it's certainly one of my favorite captures. Even though they are quite common, there's still something endearing about them.

Kerry-I'll have to keep that in mind, it sounds a lot easier than zooming in at 300 and cloning the edge against a selection mask. BTW, I really enjoy what you've been up to with the painterly effects, you have a good feel for it.

It was a great idea to include the mallard's color in the background, and you did it very well. There's something very compelling about this image, and I think the original capture is an important part of it.

Randall, I'm sorry I'm so late commenting but I really like this one. The background is gorgeous, esp. the dark tones and the grasses in the foreground. I love the drake's expression - he looks mildly guilty about something:S3:

Great comments above. The background looks very nice. Good job. I, too, find the darks a bit too dark. I can "see" this drake lifting off.