Shovelin' -- ladies first

[wendell westfall]

D70s 70-200VR+2X@400 1/2500 f/6.3 ISO400 -1EV Handheld

This is from a month ago. I kinda like the image. It is full-frame, uncropped. The original image shows no blinkies (I think I had the EV right), but somewhere along the line in processing I unintentionally left the whites hot on the drake. I also trimmed the tail of that same duck just a bit (it was "chopped off" in the original) instead of extending the canvas to the left and "constructing" a tip on the tail. I'd appreciate comments on how to avoid the "whites problem" that I caused for myself (deal with them selectively in the adjustment phase, perhaps?) and whether my tail treatment of the drake is acceptable. Thanks a bunch, in advance.

Wendell

[Bob Miller]

Hi Wendall...despite the problems you cite...which I will leave others more expert than I to answer...I like the image....I would sharpen the eye of the drake and cleanup some of the spots esp the one in the upper right. Once again...Nice image!

[Lance Peters]

Hi Wendell - Id go back to the RAW and start the conversion again - what are you converting from RAW in??

[Mark Young]

The composition is very nice, I like that the 2 birds are doing the same thing. There are some black spots in various places, possibly the lens needs a clean.

[Dave Mills]

Hi Wendell, Agree with points mentioned and your own critique. You captured shovelers doing what they do best with a bonus of having a pair. This might look good cropped as a pano...

[wendell westfall]

Lance:
I'll give that a try. In answer to your question, I shoot in RAW (Nikon's NEF), import the file into Lightroom, sometimes also do some adjustment work in Photoshop Elements (as I did here), and then save that as a TIFF, then export that file as a JPG for posting. By the way, I'm attaching the original file for you (hope I do this right) . . .

[Lance Peters]

Lance:
I'll give that a try. In answer to your question, I shoot in RAW (Nikon's NEF), import the file into Lightroom, sometimes also do some adjustment work in Photoshop Elements (as I did here), and then save that as a TIFF, then export that file as a JPG for posting. By the way, I'm attaching the original file for you (hope I do this right) . . .

Hi Wendell - the whites are OK here - a little bright but can certainly recover - just quickly here is what I was thinking....

[wendell westfall]

Hi Lance, lookin' good . . . thanks for your input!!

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Wendell Thanks for posting the original, now it makes sense !! Great re post by Lance !!

With the high contrast you exposed properly for the whites which will leave the other tones underexposed, then while lightening the image whites got blown !!!

You can see how well Lance did with the jpeg !! Many ways of going about it. Probably the best would be a double conversion, one linear the other regular then layer mask. I'm sure we got some tutorials on how to !!! This will allow to have good detail in the whites and all the color form the original you posted !!!

[wendell westfall]

Hi Alfred: Thanks for the explanation. I've had this "white problem" happen to me in the past and had no idea why. Now I can process images in the future knowing what is going on. I had never realized why whites were blown after doing some adjusting in Elements, then returning to Lightroom with the TIFF file, when they had been OK before I "took" the file to Elements (if that makes sense). This is a big help for me.