American Wigeon Hen - Eating Greens

This photo was taken at Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

My Canon EOS 7D mkII, and EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens were handheld. Settings were f/4.5, 1/180s, ISO 320, -1 EV, 248mm. Shot RAW and processed in Lightroom.

Cropped pano format from 3:2 landscape (a 9MP image from 20MP original). Aside from regular LR processing, I applied localized burning to the bill and it’s reflection. Cloned out a few spots in the water, and applied NR to background.

Critiques very much appreciated - Thanks for having a look :)

Ross

A lovely shot, Ross. No nits from me. The touch of green adds to the image.

Lovely details and you had nice muted light. I'd give it a tad more space on the top.

That spot sure gave good "painterly" water patterns at times. The greens indeed do add a lot of interest here. The overall warm and neutral tones all compliment each other nicely. The spot healing tool can often work very well on some of those small pesky oof specks in the water.

Like this a lot. Exposure and focus spot on, and the green weed certainly adds extra interest.

Lovely portrait and I agree that the delicate greens add a nice touch. Not sure about this suggestion, but I might apply a few points of brightness and see if that appeals. I would be interested to know how you sharpened this as it looks perfect, very natural.

Thank you all :)

Surprising what a little greens can do for a photo :) I thank you each for your suggestions and will try every one of them. Much appreciated!

Grace, regarding sharpening, I shot raw without sharpening in camera. Imported into Lightroom and applied the following which may affect the perception of sharpness:

Basic-Tone-Contrast: +13
Basic-Presence-Clarity: +10
Detail-Sharpening-Amount: 83
Detail-Sharpening-Radius: 1.0
Detail-Sharpening-Detail: 30
Detail-Masking: 0 (painted around bird and applied full NR instead)
Noise Reduction Luminance: 20
Upon export to Jpeg: Sharpen for Screen, Amount: Standard

Cheers,
Ross

Hi Ross, lovely low shooting angle, and I feel you have exposed this very well in the soft light. Good feather detail, sharp, and an interesting colour and texture to the water. The bit of foliage hanging out her beak adds interest. Well captured.

Thanks, Ross. I sharpen in photoshop, but similarly. I'll try it sometime in LR. Appreciate you taking the time to answer my question.

Nice looking image Ross. I like to pose with the greens and the complimentary watercolor. Details look great but I agree with Grace about bumping up the exposure a bit. Nice work

I like the pose, greens, light and complimentary BG. Very well done Ross!

Well done Ross, one of my favorite ducks. Nice capture

Thanks so much for all your suggestions and kind words of encouragement!

I cleaned up the small bokehs of specular highlights in the water, brought up the exposure slightly, then re-adjusted tonality settings in LR.

Hope you like it :)

Ross