Updated Image
Original Edit
Original With Coot
Critique Style Requested: Standard
The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
I took a day off work and explored a park in a nearby town, had a great time and got a number of shots to process including this mallard drake. I was really happy with this shot (and the couple of others right around it) until I saw the female behind him…
Specific Feedback
This was tricky and I’m not sure it looks okay or was a reasonable thing to do. I processed this in Lightroom as usual, then in Photoshop I used the Remove tool, Content-Aware Fill and clone stamp to remove the female mallard. I’d never done this before on one of my images so would like feedback on the results - I uploaded the original too (the second image). Also, it was the middle of the day so it seems overly bright to me now.
Technical Details
Fujifilm X-T3, 1/1250s, f/8.0, ISO 400, 400mm
1 Like
The background duck looks more like a coot to me, but that’s irrelevant. I think you did an excellent job of removing it and getting the background to look indistinguishable. I have no problem with removing extraneous elements from an image, though I know there are some people who refuse to do so and some contests don’t allow it. Exposure looks excellent to me and the pose is wonderful. The head and neck don’t looks quite as sharp as the breast of the duck making me wonder if your AF picked the breast up for some reason. However, that takes some pixel peeping and wouldn’t be visible at a reasonable viewing distance.
A very nice image, Debbie.
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@Dennis_Plank Oops - there was a coot in the area, it could be a coot. Thank you so much for the review. I think the camera was on single point AF and it could have been moving around - I got several shots of this guy flapping but this was the one where there was the least amount of background to remove.
Hi Debbie. I really like the wing position and placement of the mallard in the frame. I think you did a good job removing the coot, but can still see some leftover artifacts from the cloning job around the mallard’s head. I think it would take just a few more minutes to get rid of the edges still showing. I agree with Dennis about the head looking not as sharp as the body. Still nice image and nice job of improving it in post processing!
1 Like
@Kurt_Bowman Thank you! I did a little more cleaning, but I’m not sure how to add the adjusted photo here…
Hi Debbie. The best way to add the adjusted photo is to go into the edit mode on your post. To do that, simply click on the pencil icon at the bottom of your original post:
Then you can place your cursor anywhere in the edit screen and use the yellow up arrow in the toolbar to upload your new version. The customary method is to put it at the very top of the post, above your original image and label both of them so we can tell which is which. At the same time you can edit the title of your post to include “and Repost” or something similar so people know to check it out again.
I hope that helps.
1 Like
@Dennis_Plank Thanks - reposted.
Your re-post looks good with the head sharper and the eye pops more. I like the pose you caught. Nice work.
Great action shot Debbie and nice work on the removal too…makes for a cleaner image and I like your final edits…more polished.
1 Like
