Male Wood Duck

[Jack Backs]

Taken yesterday at B K Leach Missouri Conservation Area. Full frame plus. Added some canvas to the front and to the bottom from other images. Intentionally burned a little of the whites trying to get a little better shadow detail.
Nikon D500, 500mmF4VRII, TC-14EIII
1/2000s, f8, iso640

[John Mack]

Maybe almost to tight in the frame. For me anyways. Nice view of this drake though. Love the color and the pattern on these guys.

[William Dickson]

Exquisite detail you have captured here. Lovely colours throughout...a wee bit tight for me as well.

Will

[Bill Dix]

Great colors, detail, and head turn. Also too tight for me, but I know that is your preference.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Tight for me as well. Perfect profile pose, and the slightly raised head adds a bit of interest. You say you intentionally burned some of the whites for better shadow detail. In post? In-camera? Either way, you should be able to extract some of those details - I'd try if mine.

[Jack Backs]

I try to get an image in camera that has some "blinkies". I drop the highlights -50 to-100 in Adobe raw most commonly in these cases. That usually recovers most of the highlights.
I could probably recover some more lost detail after bumping the exposure by selectively burning those areas.