Quacking in High Key

[Bill Dix]

Caught this Green-winged Teal on a foggy morning in Baylands. He appears to be molting from non-breeding to breeding plumage.

D7000, 700mm, ISO 800, 1/400s @ f/6.3 manual, fill @ -1.3.

[Geoffrey Montagu]

High Key in the fog perfection Bill. Have to keep looking at all the color detail , eye contact, and the quack puts it over the top.

[Satish Ranadive]

Bill Sir,
Absolutely superb high key image of handsome bird, though in molting plumage. Love the pose with nice HA and and open beak, nice colors and low angle.

Regards,
Satish.

[Andre Pretorius]

Amazing detail, sharp.
I dare to suggest a Selective colour layer with +5 black added in neutrals,whites and blacks.

The fill flash might have made the image too cold.

Stunning capture, low angle and eye contact make this special.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Looks like a happy fella! Nice details, colours. The high-key BG works well too.

[Bill Dix]

Amazing detail, sharp.
I dare to suggest a Selective colour layer with +5 black added in neutrals,whites and blacks.

The fill flash might have made the image too cold.

Stunning capture, low angle and eye contact make this special.

Thanks Andre. I'm always open to suggestion. I had actually tweaked the levels of the RAW file before posting the OP, to try and bring him out of the fog a little bit. The white spot on the flank had just 2 points more blue than red in the OP. (The foggy BG, or course, is decidedly cool as it should be.) Here's a repost with just 2% black added to black, white and neutral, and a 3% orange photo filter applied to bring the white patch to pure neutral. These changes, although subtle, do make him pop just a little more, but at a slight additional loss of the foggy quality. It's a judgment call, I guess, as to which makes the more appealing image.

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Bill,

I enjoy the original, but the repost is even better.

I might think about burning in the shadows just a tad more to get a little more "oomph" (not sure that's how that's spelled, but I hope you know what I mean). High key works well here, a very nice job with the exposure!

Miguel

[David Salem]

The thumbnail dosnt do this justice. Cool looking high key image and the repost looks much better. Nice work Bill.

[christopher galeski]

very nice capture,good high key image,love the open bill pose.TFS.

[shane shacaluga]

Love the pose and the RP is an improvement of an already good image

TFS

[Bill Dix]

Thanks everyone. I appreciate all the comments. I'll post a companion shot this morning.