High key mallard hen

[Ben Egbert]

I got this shot back when my 1DS-mk3 was brand new and I was testing it at a local duck pond. While rebuilding my new gallery, I realized this image has the clean look that I am learning here so I decided to show it. I purposely left it cropped with a bit more room at the top and right than seems ideal to me since it is easier to remove than add. Comments on that and all other aspect appreciated.

1ds-mk3, 500f4, at f5.6 ISO400 1/125 sec. Low tripod used here. Processed with CS3, using PK sharpener and FM Velvia vision.

[Doug Brown]

Hi Ben. I like the low angle and sharpness. From a composition standpoint, I'd trim a bit of canvas off the bottom and move the bird to the right of the frame. I also think the bird could stand some brightening and a little contrast boost. What do you think of this repost, in which I also removed a slight color cast and lightened the iris?

[Ben Egbert]

Hi Ben. I like the low angle and sharpness. From a composition standpoint, I'd trim a bit of canvas off the bottom and move the bird to the right of the frame. I also think the bird could stand some brightening and a little contrast boost. What do you think of this repost, in which I also removed a slight color cast and lightened the iris?

Nice Doug, I have backed down from my processing a bit in recent times for having too much saturation. For example, I probably had a version like this and ran the slider a bit to back off.

Thanks for the repost. And both on contrast and crop.

Question on color cast. What was the cast and how did you change it? I seldom see color casts with my eye unless they are very large.

[Doug Brown]

Question on color cast. What was the cast and how did you change it? I seldom see color casts with my eye unless they are very large.

I just eyeballed it Ben. Then I created a Color Balance adjustment layer in CS4. Adjustments were roughly Magenta/Green -8 and Yellow/Blue +8.

[Dave Leroy]

Nice photo Ben I like the typical pose and eye contact. Nice and low shooting psoition also. Crop in repost looks better to me. I would also like to know how to check for a colour cast, but I did notice in the first post the light looked a bit "muddy" and greenish while in repost it looks much clearer. Dave

[Ben Egbert]

Nice photo Ben I like the typical pose and eye contact. Nice and low shooting psoition also. Crop in repost looks better to me. I would also like to know how to check for a colour cast, but I did notice in the first post the light looked a bit "muddy" and greenish while in repost it looks much clearer. Dave

Thanks for you comments and additional thoughts on color cast.

I just went back for the raw and remembered, this is one of maybe a dozen images out of thousands I shot in jpg. I was learning the camera, and inadvertablty switched to jpg.

I plan to see if I can emulated Dougs post, but like you, need some more guidance on color cast.

Thanks Doug, your reply just came in while I was typing.

[Ben Egbert]

redone from original jpg trying my best to match Dougs version.

For some reason the image upload feature is not working from SmugMug, so I had to upload from my home computer. Took me a while to get the image small enough to post. I had to relearn downsizing and sharpening.