Northern Shoveler "Eat my dust"

[Gus Hallgren]

Hi, Another try from Sweetwater, Tucson, AZ, looking to learn more from the super help available in this forum. Gus
Olympus E-510 IS-1
Zuiko 70-300 mm 1:4-5.6 ED (140-600 equiv)
Aperture Priority F6, 1/2500
0.07 EV
ISO 400
Auto WB
11:36 AM

[Richard Kowalski]

Gus,

we've discussed the burned whites in critiquing your other Shoveler images... The head a bit dark too. Tough birds to expose...
On this one I'd say a bit of CW rotation and maybe a crop so there is a little bit less of the water above the head.

Richard

[Gus Hallgren]

Hi Richard,
Thanks for your suggestion, Level is something else I will now put on my checklist. IMO, looks much better. Low, does that mean, get so low you can see the banks & vegetation on the other side of the pond? Appreciate your help.
Gus

[Nonda Surratt]

Gus,

Not sure what you did but you certainly brought out more color on the birds neck and wings!

[Gus Hallgren]

Hi Nonda, First I leveled the horizon with Ruler (CS3) under eye dropper, cropped and filled in white spaces with Quick Mask. Then I selected neck using brush in Quick Mask, then when neck only was selected I made an adjustment layers>Levels and lightened the neck, then a final tad of usm . . . For complete easy instructions use Robert O'Tool'd APTATS-1 which I think you have. Gus

[D.J. McNeil]

0_o Is that what the back of the head actually looked like!? I'm a new birder, but I know that male shovelers have green heads... is this like a juvenile or a nonbreeding?

-DJ

[Richard Kowalski]

Hey Gus.

I like the additional processing, but I think you may have gone too far with the rotation.

I know you leveled the wings, but what bothered me a bit was the water. It looked tilted and in the new version, tilted in the opposite direction.

Here is what I was thinking, along with the crop I suggested.

Richard

[Gus Hallgren]

Yep! you're right again, I put it there on the first go around, but got carried away.Think I'll just go back early one mornning, get low & dirty, and "not joomp before I have a place to stood". I made the head a dark green, good experience. But not worth the effort. Notice on my camera histogram that when the white is all the way over to the right, moving it back with the EV gives me a better photo. Does that sound in the right direction or not? My best shots have come straight out of the camera with only cropping and resizing with very minmal levels and USM. Taking a rest from my computer, and taking pictures with my camera.. Thanks for your advice . . . Gus