Preening

[wendell westfall]

D90 70-200VR+2X@400 1/1000 f5.6 ISO400 0 EV handheld

This scaup was very busy diving for food and preening, over and over again . Cropped and adjusted in LR4.

Wendell

[Mike Milicia]

Excellent detail and it looks like your base exposure was good but the blacks look light and washed out and lack the richness I would expect with this species.
Maybe a little too aggressive with the blacks and/or shadows sliders?
Also could use some CCW rotation.

[wendell westfall]

Thanks for looking, Mike. Believe you're right about the blacks slider.

[jack williamson]

Nice image Wendell, I agree with Mike, the image looks a little flat. I like that golden eye reflection.

[PhilCook]

I'm with Mike and would like to add that overall this is a nice image with plenty of detail and natural color showing through so worth tinkering with a little more in editing to make it better .

Hope you didn't mind but I had a quick few seconds play with it by adjusting levels to enhance contrast and a curves adjust, slightly different crop and slight CCW rotate to improve a little more...at least I think so ....a lot more could be done with the original RAW file

[wendell westfall]

Phil, your final image looks so much richer than mine! I was trying to open up the blacks and washed out the colors in the process. I seem not to have a very discriminating eye . . . though once I see your corrections, they become obvious.