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Thread: Input on PP for this Muscovey Duck

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    Default Input on PP for this Muscovey Duck

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    I believe this is a Muscovey Duck, please correct me if I'm wrong.

    This was taken a couple of years ago when I had just gotten another camera for a trip while one was being fixed, the camera is a Nikon P510.

    I'm just wondering if anyone can help me out and tell me if this is salvageable, or if we can use it as a "how to" kind of thing.

    I love this shot and wonder if black and white may help???

    This is not the original, I did do some PP

    It's full frame, no crop, I did a gradient darkening at the top.... I love the top of the water above the duck and wish it could be switched to the bottom.

    Also did a gradient darkening at the bottom, again wish I could have just switched top for bottom.

    Extreme sharpening and noise reduction, this was low light and still at sundown.

    I know the whites are blown, couldn't get any back really.

    Did some contrast adjustments.

    I can post the original if need be.

    Exif
    1/125 at f/5.9
    ISO 560
    Focal 360mm

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    Oops definitely not a Muscovy, those have red heads, I'm tired

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    Its a female Common Merganser.

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    The main issue I see here is the blown whites. If they aren't salvageable that's going to be a limitation on the image. (Was it a RAW capture?) There are halos around the bright areas, especially noticeable on the beak, probably due to the lens. (Try to keep light from striking the front of a lens, and don't use filters unless you need a polarizer.) About the only fix for that would be cloning, or just accepting it. Keeping the contrast low might help a little with that and the whites.

    There is also some noise (but not a lot) which might have been enhanced by your sharpening. NR and sharpening are limited tools and often just cancel one another. NR can give an improvement at 1:1 (100%) view in RAW conversion and can work with limits on OOF BGs in PS. There are several NR plug-ins for PS, and sometimes one will work when another doesn't. Sharpening can make a very subtle improvement to an already-good file (viewed at 100%) and it can be a significant improvement to a JPEG already prepared for viewing here. It can't correct poor focus or motion blur.

    If you can bring out more detail in the face and neck, it would compete better with the brighter areas.

    Going to B/W might work for this image, to achieve a somewhat artistic look. The noise could pass for B/W film grain, for instance. The only way to know it to try it.

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    A lovely female Common Merg! Always love the "bad hair day" look... it is, however very "hot". I'm thinking that a lot less sharpening would work better. Was it at some point "upsized"? Would like to see a repost of the original. May be suffering from multiple "saves" of the JPG? I'm ok with the top and bottom...also good refection here. Maybe try the artistic approach, as Diane suggested.
    www.mibirdingnetwork.com .... A place for bird and nature lovers in the Great Lakes area.

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    Gosh was I tired when I posted Muscovy, ugh

    This is still a lifer for me shot in Sedona Arizona, so thank you for the ID.

    I will post the original.

    I know the skill and quality of this photo is not good, but I love the overall image. I have tons of photos like this, horrible, but worth saving for the memory.

    Or tons from a trip I took in 2006 with a camera that just couldn't do what we can do now, do you just trash them???

    This was with a camera I was not yet used to as my Sony had gone to be fixed.

    Diane this was actually around sun down and I was sitting in shadows, and there was still water hitting the creek, it's down in Oak Creek Canyon.

    So there was definitely no light hitting the camera, and I don't use filters.

    I believe the blown whites and beak are from the sun.

    I know I'm getting something wrong in sharpening on output in LR, have a call into family friend who knows LR to ask what I'm doing wrong.

    Will be back in a few with the original, need to size it for the forum and upload.

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    Here is the original. Just sized for the forum nothing else done. Not RAW, none of my cameras are capable.

    Sandy it had not been sized more than once, I try very hard to keep a master file and then size once from that for things like this forum or print, on my masters I only ever save once occasionally twice.

    Thanks for all the input

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