Northern Pintail

Image Critiques Avian Critiques
1

I took this one last fall with some fall colors reflecting off the water. Pintail was back lite so I have lightened up some. Too much maybe not sure. Photo is full frame cropped to 16 x 10 to remove some of the top.

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Anything

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Anything

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2 Likes
2

Beautiful light with nice patterns in the water. I like the pose of the pintail and the colors and detail look good. My only nit would be a better look at the eye. I wonder if some dodging in PS would bring it out more.

3

The lighting is absolutely gorgeous and I love the patterns in the water. I’m envious of these birds that can twist around and scratch their own backs. Wonderful photo David.

4

I love the reflections in the water and it does have some beautiful patterns, David. The composition works very nicely. I’m not sure about the brightness of the Pintail. It looks just slightly off to me, but I have trouble visualizing it either darker or lighter and how that might work. I do like the way the feather detail is showing. Nicely done.

5

The darned eye is closed Allen and it is the white feathers on the eye lid showing. I had other photos with the eye showing but i preferred the symmetry of this pose. Thanks for commenting. Dave

6

Haha. I am pretty sure I have a granddaughter that can twist around and at least watch what is going on. Thanks for commenting. Dave

7

Gorgeous, gorgeous colors in the water David. That is what drew me to this image. Too bad about that “darned closed eye”, but like you said the composition with reflection is beautiful.

8

Thanks Dennis and Mark.

I think I preferred a slightly darker version and if there had been a catch light might have gone that way. Dave

9

Yes the water really stands out well here. Beautiful colors and textures in the water. The pintail is a tad bit dark and perhaps you could lighten that. The other thing I would consider would be to perhaps crop down towards the head may be to the area where the texture of the water changes, about 20% of the top.

10

Thanks David. I had looked at a 16/9 crop which would have taken about 10% more off top. In the end I settled on 16/10 . I was back and forth on how much to lighten the bird. I tis hard to know from one day to the next which works best.

The highlight was really the water and I really enjoyed that.
Dave