Injured Mallard

[Jim Poor]

Here is the male from the couple I showed the other day. It wouldn't be overly difficult to hide his injury altogether, but that wasn't the point of the series.

I think the hot whites on the out of place feathers serve to add bit of an "ouch" factor that helps feel the injury. What do you think?


I really feel like I need to desaturate the legs, but everything I do makes them look really unnatural. As presented, I think the orange is too intense.

I tried a new way to draw attention away from the boat ramp by masking the rocks, inverting the mask, copying to a new layer, Gaussian Blur 15 Pixels, darkened a touch in levels and then dropped the opacity of the new layer to just over 50%.

This is a new technique for me, so I'm curious what others think of the success or lack thereof.

Burke Lake Park, VA

D3
200-400 @ 400
1/320 @ f7.1
Hand Held (more like rested on the palm of my hand, which was flat on the ground)
Available light
Time: 13:28:40

[Jeff Nadler]

Jim, the saturation, contrast, angle, and overall technicals look fine on my LCD. Great angle.

[Jim Poor]

Thanks Jeff.

Maybe the orange bugs me because my eyes are weary after having to stare at that awful RED so much while in QM mode. . .

Oh, forgot to mention that I cloned out a little debris on the rocks and in the water on the left of the frame.

[Lana Hays]

Jim
A very handsome fellow.....rather a coy look I might add. Their legs are pretty orange so I think they look fine. The bottom/foreground does look good...I just wish there was a little more.....the feet seem too close to the bottom.

[Jim Poor]

Thanks Lana,

I went back and forth on minimizing the foreground and leaving room at the bottom..... Maybe I should go a little back the other way.

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Beautiful capture Jim with lovely lighting , color and excellent detail. Really like this and as mentioned perhaps a tad more room at the bottom