This wood duck was captured at a local vernal pond several weeks ago. It is deep in the woods, and the light comes up slowly and unevenly. I was afraid I would have to call in an avian rehab team to get his neck back into position!
Z6, 500mm f/4 at f/4, 1/640s , ISO 2500. Taken while sitting in my sled blind, using the flip out screen for viewing
Post: Slight crop for comp. Cleaned up a few spots in the water.
Haha that's funny. But the lighting Randy.... to get that golden chest, my first thought was maybe the light was bouncing off the water or something but don't see much for reflection behind the log. Was the sun just cresting?
The sun was just coming up, so that accounts for some of the difference in lighting. I also did adjust the color temperature of the background, made it cooler so the bird would pop a bit more, and did lighten the bird itself by .47 D.
I guess I have too much time to kill and am fiddling with my pictures too much!
I will be sure to disclose any tweaks like this in the future.
Jon: I had tried a luminosity mask on the tail area, bringing up the exposure just a sliver, but in the end didn't use it.
Gail: Good point about the CCW rotation. I stared at it for a while before posting, but because the perch angles away, and the background shore is indistinct, it was hard to be sure. But, when I revisited it, I found that the little branch stub just behind the foot had a solid reflection in the water that I could use, and it ended up needing about 2 degrees of CCW.
Hi Randy ... a sweet preening image .
Vey nice to have the duck elevated above the water and received a clean shot .
Nice light illuminating the scene and bringing out some nice colors .
I am 50/50 on the cyans ... might drop them and see how it looks in combo with a hue shift
Early morning preen - that. has to hurt!
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