Mallard (detail)

Attachment 172138
I'm a sucker for nice feather detail so when these overly-friendly Mallards moved in close looking for handouts (which they didn't get), I couldn't resist trying some close up shots of the plumage. Hope you enjoy something a bit different. Taking on the Coromandel Peninsula, North Island, New Zealand. Almost full-frame (a whisker off the bottom and a little more off the right of the original frame).

Thanks for taking a look and any comments you may share.

Capture details: Canon 80D with EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM at 400mm handheld. Manual exposure 1/200 sec, f7.1, ISO 1000. Processed in Canon DPP 4 (digital lens optimiser @ 50, sharpness = 3, crop, lighting adjustments, default NR) then exported 16 bit TIFF to Photoshop Elements. Minor selective lighting adjustments and some USM on selected softer parts. Sharpened in PSE (Sharpness tool, remove Gaussian blur) after final size reduction.

I'd retouch the little white speck on the feathers about a third of the way down, right in the center. Otherwise I love the detail in this shot. Also, the sheen on those blue feathers is gorgeous.
A different image to a typical bird, but still very lovely.

I enjoy close-ups like this a lot myself. Cheers

I too enjoy these types of images, and strive to create them whenever I can. I wonder if pointing your lens more to your right, enough to hide the dark triangle above (which would have also moved the blue speculum a bit out of center) would have worked well? In any regards, I am glad you went for it, lots to look at here, in a good way.

It is hard to get this kind of image and do it well, but I think you have succeeded!
I would clone out the white spot in the brown feather at the top. Excellent IQ and detail.
Gail

Hi Glenn, I echo the previous comments. Nice work, thank you for sharing.