Red-breasted Merganser wing flap

[Bill Dix]

I visited another pond on Friday, and found a Merganser that was willing to perform a wing flap for me -- only one, but I got it. The light was dull so the colors aren't as good as in the non-flap merganser I posted the other day, but I was pleased to add this to the collection.

Full disclosure: This unfortunate fellow had a broken upper mandible. I looked through my inventory of spare merg parts, and found one suitable for a rare Digital Mandible Transplant. See the next pane for the pre-transplant version.

D7000, 700mm, ISO 800, 1/2000s @ f/6.3 manual, tripod.

[Bill Dix]

Here's the pre-op version.

[Richard Stern]

Hi Bill,

Lovely image, with sharp bird, good pose and eye contact, low angle. I like the wing position and water droplets, good separation from the background. Excellent digital bill surgery too! Perhaps just a tad more room above and to the right for the bird to jump into, but I think the image is great as is.

Richard

[arash_hazeghi]

very nice, I like the dynamic pose and the water drops. It's a bit dark on my screen, the blacks could show more detail.

[vishaljadhav]

Bill,
Great Digital Surgery of the mandible

i love the pose and the water drops take it over the top , since the light was dull as you said the brightness looks good, ( i am still looking at the water drops)
lovely details, agree with Arash that a bit more details in black may be possible to recover.
Wonderful as presented.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Awesome work on the bill, Bill!! I like the wingflap pose and the subdued light works well too IMO but I agree a bit more detail to the blacks would have been good. Nice details and I like the texture to the water.

[Bill Dix]

Thanks for all the comments. I agree about the blacks. I struggled with this in post. The exposure seemed about right, with just the tiniest area of blinkies on the breast. Even though it wasn't bright sunlight, there seemed to be a wide dynamic range, with the histogram showing a small clump of data very near the left edge, but not technically clipped. The head seemed like a black hole. I tried to open it up in NX2, and then in PS with contrast reduction, brightness, s/h, but couldn't get much detail. Partly, I think, because the light was coming off-angle from the right. Here's a repost with as much as I can eke out of it, and when you look too closely, this looks a little overworked to my eye.

[gail bisson]

I am amazed by your PP work! Awesome.
I have to go with the OP. This is what the eye would see in real life anyway,
Gail

[Ivan Ellison]

Nice shot, the repost just shows the green in head better. Nice work with the bill tip, but I feel it tells a story with the broken one- they both work - the repaired one is obviously better aesthetically. Nice water drops and great detail to the wings.

[Karl Egressy]

Dream shot, Bill. Love everything about it.

[David Salem]

Nice wing flap pose. Great job on the surgery too. The third post is the best IMO and the blacks look better. Sharp and clear and exposed well also. Well done.

[Frank Schauf]

Beautiful portrait, great details, a great shot.