Santee lakes-CA Wood duck

[nancy hazen]

This is a female wood duck at Santee Lakes. Today was a perfect day there - more species of birds than I have ever seen.
Nancy

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5242/...5780edf2_z.jpg

Exposure	0.001 sec (1/1000)
Aperture	f/5.6
Focal Length	400 mm
ISO Speed 320 Canon 7D 100-400

[Julie Kenward]

Nancy, this is a lovely portrait! Normally, I'd like to see a little more room below for the "virtual feet" and the entire tail in the image but for some reason I really like the feeling of it being buried in the green grass. If you have more room in these two areas you might go back and loosen the crop but I also think this isn't a bad way to go.

Lovely angle on the bird and nice details throughout. The one thing I do see that I'd try to fix is the green going up the side of the frame on the right. Use the colors of the BG on the left side to clone right over that green strip and have that level out the horizon.

[nancy hazen]

Nancy, this is a lovely portrait! Normally, I'd like to see a little more room below for the "virtual feet" and the entire tail in the image but for some reason I really like the feeling of it being buried in the green grass. If you have more room in these two areas you might go back and loosen the crop but I also think this isn't a bad way to go.

Lovely angle on the bird and nice details throughout. The one thing I do see that I'd try to fix is the green going up the side of the frame on the right. Use the colors of the BG on the left side to clone right over that green strip and have that level out the horizon.

I hadn't thought about that green on the side, but now that I look at it I agree. It really helps having new eyes looking at an image. Thank you Jules. Unfortunately I was too close when I took this and didn't get the whole duck. To be honest this was not one of the images I thought I'd like best from the day, but it turned out to be one of the bette exposures. I also got down low for it, while the others I was higher. Thanks so much for your ideas.
Nancy

[Randy Stout]

Nancy:

Good critique by Julie. One of the joys of using a zoom is that you can click off a few shots with looser framing after you do your initial shots, because it is striking how often you want a bit more canvas to play with for different compositions.

The eye ring on the hens is often a challenge for the exposure, because of their overall dark plumage, and I often have to do a selection on it and run a multiply blend mode, to try and tone it down a bit and show a it of detail.

Look forward to more.

Cheers

Randy

[nancy hazen]

Nancy:

Good critique by Julie. One of the joys of using a zoom is that you can click off a few shots with looser framing after you do your initial shots, because it is striking how often you want a bit more canvas to play with for different compositions.

The eye ring on the hens is often a challenge for the exposure, because of their overall dark plumage, and I often have to do a selection on it and run a multiply blend mode, to try and tone it down a bit and show a it of detail.

Look forward to more.

Cheers

Randy

Thanks Randy. Can you explain what you mean when you say you make a selection and then run a multiply blend mode on it. I didn't do much PP on this one. I do know how to select a section of an image on Photoshop Elements and darken or lighten it, but it doesn't always come out that great.
Thanks
Nancy

[Peter Farrell]

I agree with Julie about the green strip on the right side. Oterwise I like this a lot. A fiffernt an interesting look with her in the grass.
Peter

[Randy Stout]

Thanks Randy. Can you explain what you mean when you say you make a selection and then run a multiply blend mode on it. I didn't do much PP on this one. I do know how to select a section of an image on Photoshop Elements and darken or lighten it, but it doesn't always come out that great.
Thanks
Nancy

Nancy:

I create a new layer and then create a selection of the white eye patch. You can try it both with eye, and with the eye excluded from the selection. I then add a layer mask and set the blend mode to multiply. I will adjust the opacity slider to taste.

This only works if there is some detail left there, but worth a try. Would be much more successful on the raw file vs. the posted jpeg.

Cheers

Randy

[Bill Dix]

A lovely portrait. I like the oof background and foreground colors. Great head angle. Good critique from Jules and Randy. I might add that for my personal taste a bit more room in front might help.

[nancy hazen]

Nancy:

I create a new layer and then create a selection of the white eye patch. You can try it both with eye, and with the eye excluded from the selection. I then add a layer mask and set the blend mode to multiply. I will adjust the opacity slider to taste.

This only works if there is some detail left there, but worth a try. Would be much more successful on the raw file vs. the posted jpeg.

Cheers

Randy

Thanks Randy.

[nancy hazen]

A lovely portrait. I like the oof background and foreground colors. Great head angle. Good critique from Jules and Randy. I might add that for my personal taste a bit more room in front might help.

Thanks Bill, I think I was zoomed out too far to do this. I appreciate your suggestion.
Nancy