Northern Pintail

[gail bisson]

Canon 1 DX 600mm Cloudy Day.
F 5.6 ISO 1600 SS 1/3200 (I was waiting for a flight take-off shot)
Did a fair bit of tidying up in the BG reeds in PP. There was a horizontal grass behind the pintail that I cloned out and a grass in the water.
Comments and critiques always appreciated and learned from with thanks,
gail

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Wonderfull wingflap, Gail. This was the perfect moment where every part of the Pintail, even the virtual feet, is displayed elegantly. Love the warm tones and low POV.

Geoffrey




http://500px.com/geoffreymontagu

[Jim Crosswell]

Excellent image Gail! The colors all work together perfectly. I like the IQ, pose, composition and iridescence in the head shows nicely. If I had to be picky I would clone out the bright spot on the outer band of the ripple in front of the Pintsil.

[Alex Becker]

Nice one Gail, I really like the colors here and exposure looks good. I love that touch of pink. I didnt notice it at first, but after reading Jim's comment I agree with cloning out that one ripple. TFS

[annmpacheco]

Lovely , terrific processing work. I like the unique wing pose and that pintail heading NW! yes on the white spot to remove... the head w the colors are fab, you go girl! mighty nice indeed.

[Allen Sparks]

Hi Gail,
Terrific pose and so well captured! Love the details and setting of this shot.
Allen

[Isaac Grant]

I like the pose with the cocked tail and perfect head angle. The habitat in the background and all with a beautiful color palette. The details on the wings look great. But I think the exposure is spot on for the rest of the bird. The blacks of the tail look a bit blocked to me, the pale yellow area on the flanks looks a little hot and don't show any detail, same goes for the whites on the neck. Being super picky I do wish the wings were a little more extended and not touching the face.

[David Salem]

One of my favorite ducks and you did a nice job capturing the wing flap. The techs look perfect and so are the details. The only thing I wish for was the left-wing was further back and not intersecting the head but otherwise well done as usual.

[gail bisson]

Hi Isaac,
You always keep me on my toes! I agree the whites are hot. I have had this issue with my last 2 images I posted. When I downsize the TIFF to a JPEG at 1600 pixels for BPN, the whites get hot. Not sure what is going on- must figure it out. The TIFF does not have any blown out whites. Curiouser and curiouser...
gail


gail

I like the pose with the cocked tail and perfect head angle. The habitat in the background and all with a beautiful color palette. The details on the wings look great. But I think the exposure is spot on for the rest of the bird. The blacks of the tail look a bit blocked to me, the pale yellow area on the flanks looks a little hot and don't show any detail, same goes for the whites on the neck. Being super picky I do wish the wings were a little more extended and not touching the face.

[gail bisson]

So I went back to the drawing board with this image and backed off on my sharpening and decreased the highlight slider in DPP more aggressively. (was at -1 but I moved it to -4)
I also included the image before cloning. I always have the guilts when I clone a lot in an image and do not show the "before" and "after".

[John Whaley]

Terrific pose and light on the Pintail. Good feather detail, tack sharp, background compliments. Repost improves. They are one of the most shy ducks ( for me at least ) to capture. Well done.