Preening Pintail

[gail bisson]

Taken in Vancouver in February 2017
I love the lines in this image and I am OK that I can't see the eye but understand that this will not be everyone's cup of tea!
Canon 1 DX
600mm
ISO 400 F 7.1 SS 1/1600
Crop to 75% FF. Nothing added or cloned. I did smooth out the BG (above the pintail) using negative tonal contrast from the program EFEX Pro as well as some NR.
Comments and critiques always appreciated and learned from with thanks,
Gail

[Bob Smith]

Never mind the eye Gail--it's the speculum that counts here--that is the eye of this image. You've captured a full spread display of those feathers beautifully and I like the way all the straight line structures ( predominantly neck and longer wing feathers ) line up in parallel--and then you have the intersecting arrowhead of feathers at the rearend. I think when things line up like this in an image, even though if, perhaps, perceived subliminally, they "make" the shot.

[Mike Hitchen]

I like it. It is something we all see the goingon, and I am sure most have taken an image trying to 'get it to work' - most of the time it doesn't but it sure does here. The spread of the feathers is almost an geometric abstract and you can still tell which end is which.

[gail bisson]

Bob,
Thank you for thoughtful and well-thought through comments. They are greatly appreciated.
Gail

Never mind the eye Gail--it's the speculum that counts here--that is the eye of this image. You've captured a full spread display of those feathers beautifully and I like the way all the straight line structures ( predominantly neck and longer wing feathers ) line up in parallel--and then you have the intersecting arrowhead of feathers at the rearend. I think when things line up like this in an image, even though if, perhaps, perceived subliminally, they "make" the shot.

[gail bisson]

Thank you Mike.
Gail

I like it. It is something we all see the goingon, and I am sure most have taken an image trying to 'get it to work' - most of the time it doesn't but it sure does here. The spread of the feathers is almost an geometric abstract and you can still tell which end is which.

[Isaac Grant]

An interesting pose and I like the look of the spread wing. I find the bird and the water too dark and something seems funny about the feather details to me. The whites of the neck looked too gray (maybe because they are ruffled a bit?) and the yellowish patch at the base of the tail looks washed out and too dull. I know how hard these guys are as have photographed them a fair bit this winter.

[John Mack]

Really like the pattern the feathers show here. The composition seems good to me.

[John Whaley]

It may not be everyone's cup of tea but I like it very much. I love the lines as well.

[gail bisson]

Thanks to all for your comments.
Isaac, I have posted the completely unprocessed image, sized down to BPN dimensions.
In PP I increased exposure by .40 and warmed the image up a bit.
Would appreciate any suggestions re: better processing? Image was taken in February at ~4:00PM on a sunny day with high wispy cloud cover.
Gail

[Isaac Grant]

These birds are so hard because it is so easy to blow out the white areas. I had a go at your file and as usual these types of things are much better done on the original. Background is a bit messed up above the bird cause of such a small file. Tell me what you think. I always find it very hard to process birds like this that have white whites and dark areas as well.

Selected only the yellow patch near the tail and then inversed the selection. Brightness +20, Contrast -25
Inversed selection and upped the saturation and yellows of the patch.
Selected bird (and saved selection) and put on own layer. Burned the white tips of the wings a bit at 20% opacity
Dodged the shadowed area on lower breast and the red of the wing also at 20%. Lowered the blues in the whites of the breast to -60
Flattened and reloaded selection. Applied the NIK DE/TC formula at 25% opacity to bird only
Inveresed selection and in levels lowered the mid tones of the water to 95 and upped the whites to 235. Then added Saturation of +4.
Applied NR to background and sharpened bird using Smart Sharpen at .5 and 80.
Overall I think my edit is a bit over sharpened and highlights are a bit hot but just did it to eke some more details out. I think on your original that would not be necessary.

Thoughts?

[John Whaley]

Wow - I would like to see a video tutorial of that edit. Well done.

[gail bisson]

Here is my redo with most of Isaac's workflow. Thanks Isaac-I have learned a couple of important things!!

[annmpacheco]

Wow, nice processing, artsy too! Thanks Gail & Isaac for such detail on PP; super helpful.

[David Salem]

Wow, What a beautiful take on one of my favorite ducks! The preening pose is fantastic as it shows a the colorful nuances of the Sprigs wing so well. Great colors and shapes. Probably the only way to get a good look at all the feathers as they are mostly hidden at rest. Thats why I like ducks in flight so much. We get to see the colorful wing feathers better.
I like what you did with the re-post best. Well done Gail