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Thread: Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks-What do you do when you cannot get low?

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    Default Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks-What do you do when you cannot get low?

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    While this is not the iconic picture of these ducks perching on a tree limb, I liked the poses. This was shot in Costa Rica at a hotel near the airport. A small pond in the back of this hotel holds literally 100's of these ducks. Usually they fly from their roosts to surrounding fields early in the morning, but some do not leave the grounds. Instead they fly down to the pond and feed there. This image was processed in PS, applying a graduated blur to the background to try to compensate for the relative high POV (unable to get too low to water primarily because pond had resident Caimans (alligators). Not sure the blur helped.
    Shot with a Canon R7, 100-500 at 500, SS 1/1250, f/7.1, ISO 1600, EC of -1.0. Increased saturation on ducks slightly, cloned out some floating debris.

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    Macro and Flora Moderator Jonathan Ashton's Avatar
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    I think you did a pretty good job, just to add a little more sense of depth you could boost the presence of the water ripples in the vicinity of the ducks.
    I am not too sure if the EC of -1.0 would have been entirely necessary?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jonathan Ashton View Post
    I think you did a pretty good job, just to add a little more sense of depth you could boost the presence of the water ripples in the vicinity of the ducks.
    I am not too sure if the EC of -1.0 would have been entirely necessary?
    As to the EC, you are right. I was shooting Cattle Egrets at this pond when the ducks came into view. So often, I forget to look at the settings in my VF.
    "Boost the presence of water ripples"; do you mean raising brightness? Would you brush on a curves or levels layer?

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    James I think you did a great job overall with the circumstances. Nice photo showing the ducks in their element. I like that you left the cattails in the lower left. Just a tip I don't think the Caimans would have bothered you as they have plenty of ducks. LOL TFS

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    BPN Member Andreas Liedmann's Avatar
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    Hi James ... nice to see different species and I do like the overall comp .
    Tones looking good as does the details and sharpness . The Fg plants are a bit unfortunate ... but not much you can do .

    The color balance does look somehow off ... very very yellow overall , but you were there .

    TFS Andreas

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    Hi James, I like it too. But Andreas is right -- there is a big yellow cast. LMK if you need some help with that.

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    BPN Member Dorian Anderson's Avatar
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    Both birds are attentive, so that's a great start. I think the comp works well, and the birds do jump out from the surroundings. The sticks at bottom left are a bummer, and I agree about the yellow cast. But a very nice ini-habitat frame
    of this entertaining species.

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    Macro and Flora Moderator Jonathan Ashton's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by James Babbitt View Post
    As to the EC, you are right. I was shooting Cattle Egrets at this pond when the ducks came into view. So often, I forget to look at the settings in my VF.
    "Boost the presence of water ripples"; do you mean raising brightness? Would you brush on a curves or levels layer?
    I would have used a brush mask in ACR and used some Clarity on the ripples.

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    Default re-edit

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    I have gone back and re-edited the shot, taking some suggestions from the forum. I desaturated (yellow) the entire image and selected the water around the ducks and reduced the clarity. The yellow cast is something I often struggle with; I often take images (especially near water) at sunrise when there is a yellow-orange cast to the light. I like that cast, but then when I go back to look a the images, I can see it is overdone. Thanks for the help and reminders.

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