White-cheeked Pintail

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Another frame from the wildlife preserve in Lima, Peru this past June. C&C welcome.

D4s, Nikon 500mm + 1.4 TC, 1/800s, f 5.6, ISO 1000, Gitzo tripod, Wimberley Gimbal head.

Geoffrey

[Grace Scalzo]

What a beautiful creature. The view of the top of the far wing completes the look you are giving us. Thinking about a couple of things here, one is I'm not sure what the reflected body is adding at the bottom and when I scroll to eliminate it, I like the image without it. There is evidence of cloning in the water on the left side. I'm not sure how much you have cropped, but coming in tighter would eliminate that. I also think that your duck could use some additional sharpening. Let me know what you think.

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Thanks Grace. I appreciate your ever watchful eye. Should have mentioned I had removed another WCHP from the left side using the content aware move tool in cs6. I experimented with a number of the strengths associated with the tool, then did a bit of cloning. My skills need a bit of sharpening. As busy as the water is, it's a tough repair. Any suggestions? I agree with your crop suggestions.

I added some additional sharpening to the duck.

Geoffrey

[Bill Dix]

Beautiful duck, and lovely color in the BG. The wing stretch gives us a nice view of the dorsal wing colors. The repost is an improvement on all counts.

[David Cowling]

A beautiful bird very well photographed. Bg is good . Agree with Grace re cropping out the reflection but I do like the additional room on the left in the original posting. You could perhaps do a bit of work with the clone tool on the water.

[Karl Egressy]

Such wonderfully lit nicely posing bird. Excellent image that inspired me to trying to reprocess more than a decade old image of mine of the same species, Geoffrey.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Geoff, not quite a full wing flap, but the semi open far wing shows us a hint of the lovely colours they have. Did you only capture one shot, or was this from a sequence. I normally take a long burst when I can see a wing flap coming on, and choose the best wing position. I prefer your comp in the OP, if you could fix the cloning artifacts.

[David Salem]

Wow! I would love to see one of these in real life. What a great looking duck and you did well capturing the colors. Nice details and the green background adds a lot. Repost a definite improvement. Well done

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Hi Geoff, not quite a full wing flap, but the semi open far wing shows us a hint of the lovely colours they have. Did you only capture one shot, or was this from a sequence. I normally take a long burst when I can see a wing flap coming on, and choose the best wing position. I prefer your comp in the OP, if you could fix the cloning artifacts.

Thanks Stu. This was from a sequence. I was ready, and in this case he went from a head back grooming under one primary, then started the flap lasting 11 frames. The frame that is close to a full wing flap, the near wing is partially obscuring the eye, but may work.

Geoffrey

[Jim Crosswell]

The repost looks much better Geoffrey! Wish I had one of these ducks in my files.

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Thanks everyone.



Geoffrey