Wigeon

[gary rouleau]

Land of Enchantment.

Canon 50D
ISO500 f/5.0 @1/4000

Lens 300mm f/2.8 + 1.4X
Cheers
gary

[Doug Brown]

Great wing position, eye contact, and BG. The bird (especially the head) is underexposed though. I would rework it in Lightroom Gary; it's a good photo otherwise.

[John Chardine]

This image has a lot of potential Gary. The take-off action (drips from feet) and wing position are great. The main problem with the image is that at least on my monitor it is way too dark. I experimented in Ps and was able to brighten up the whole bird (minus the white belly), particularly the head using a combination of dodging and applying an Overlay Layer. You initially set the layer to 50% grey and then paint in white with a weak brush where you want the image to brighten up. Seemed to work nicely but mask off the BG when you do this or you can get a light halo around the bird.

[Doug Brown]

Here's a repost in which I also lightened the BG just a little for balance.

[Tony Whitehead]

Lovely pose. Good advice form Doug and John. John's overlay dodge/burn suggestion is a good technique. Doug's repost gives a good idea of the potential of this image but highlights the noise issue when trying to recover under-exposed images. Reprocessing the original RAW should give a better result.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Cool pose and a brighter version brings out the details much better. I would give it more room.

[Arthur Morris]

Hey Gary, Great pose and water drops. Doug's re-post is a huge improvement. Tony's suggestion is the bomb. I'd go lighter on the face with a bit less contrast than Doug's version. Hope to see you out there in 3 weeks.