The Mating Game

[William Dickson]

Canon 5D Mk3
f/4 500mm with 1.4
f/7.1
1/320
ISO 2500

Weather is still dreich over here, but managed to get out. This was captured from the lochside yesterday, from my portable hide. The Mallards were 'courting' big style, and after 'the event' he was obviously wanting more, as can be seen from his rampant look . The female had enough and dived, then swam away, with a smile on her face

Will

[Randy Stout]

Wil:

He does seem pretty proud of himself! Nice display of the various shades of green on the head. I could see a version with the color temp. raised just a sliver, and a very slight boost in the midtones.

Cheers

Randy

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Will, I like the low POV and the Mallards posture, and as Randy say's - 'pretty proud of himself', the 'S' shape of the head/neck emphasises this well. I wonder if you could have got away with f/5.6 which also would have bolstered a little on the SS. I could be wrong, but the sharpness of the head looks a bit off, as the lighter side plumage looks sharper? Might be worth opening the RAW in DPP to see where the FP was?

TFS
Steve

[William Dickson]

Thanks for the comments and advice, much appreciated Here is a repost as you suggested Randy. Yer probably correct Steve, I never thought, at the moment of capture, but I will next time

[keith mitchell]

Good tips and advice from Randy and Steve and I can see what they are getting at Will, but very well done getting what you got I do like the pose and those splashes.

Keith.

[Joseph Przybyla]

He looks proud, almost strutting. Nice composition, lovely color palette. Thank you for sharing, Will.

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the proud pose, behaviour, clean BG and composition. Well done Will!

[Diane Miller]

Great capture! He's obviously pleased with his conquest.

[Arthur Morris]

Love the pose. Good luck getting the female diving away.

Thoughts on the repost?

a

[gail bisson]

I just love the proud pose. Both reposts add a bit of "oomph" to the image and Artie's seems a bit sharper.
When I first looked at this image it took me a bit to figure out what the brown feathers were at the back of the drake. I eventually figured it out before reading your narrative!
Nice low POV,
Gail

[Karl Egressy]

Love the pose captured here, Will.

[Daniel Cadieux]

I love the whistling sound the drakes often make when assuming that pose. Neat behaviour. I'd likely remove the white line touching the back, but it's not too bad. Artie's repost with added contrast (or simply deeper blacks) punches things up.

[William Dickson]

Love the pose. Good luck getting the female diving away.

Thoughts on the repost?

a

Yes its looking good Artie. As Daniel said the deeper blacks add more to the image. May I ask what you did.

Thanks for that.

Will

[Arthur Morris]

I just love the proud pose. Both reposts add a bit of "oomph" to the image and Artie's seems a bit sharper.
When I first looked at this image it took me a bit to figure out what the brown feathers were at the back of the drake. I eventually figured it out before reading your narrative!
Nice low POV, Gail

I think that you meant the "back of the hen." a

[Arthur Morris]

Yes its looking good Artie. As Daniel said the deeper blacks add more to the image. May I ask what you did.

Thanks for that.

Will

Thanks Bill, Selected the head with the Quick Selection tool and put it on its own layer. Applied my 25/25 recipe of NIK Color EFEX Pro Tonal Contrast/Detail Extractor at 100%. Followed that by a Contrast Mask: Unsharp Mask at 11/65/0. All of that on the layer with the head only. All as detailed in my Digital Basics File which includes dozens of great Photoshop tips.

[adrian dancy]

Excellent behaviour capture. I will not refer to comments above which cover everything except one point. The upper bill line has an artefact. This may be the result of selection or there has been image bleeding from the bright area of the bill into the background.