Slight desaturation of the female wing patch:
Original:
Critique Style Requested: Standard
The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
Wood Duck (Aix sponsa)
Wood Ducks don’t necessarily mate for life, but certainly for a season and that paring usually starts in the fall. I hope this image shows the two in a tender moment.
Specific Feedback
I am most interested in the composition, the feeling, and most importantly the colors.
As some know I am red/green color blind. I sometimes post images that have color casts in them that I don’t detect. To deal with that I am now trying to work with the RGB readouts and WB Picker to eliminate the casts and get a more realistic look.
For this scene, it was early morning in a local business park. The sun was behind me and shining on a building in front. The light was reflecting off the building and on to the water. The birds were in shadow. It took quite a bit of processing to pull this one together.
With respect to the colors, the software I use (Capture One) has a wonderful tool that allows me to place RGB color readout flags on the image. (I’m sure Lightroom has a similar feature). In this way I can read the colors that I can’t easily see:
So, I am asking for opinions on whether this image looks good from a color perspective.
Technical Details
600mm, 1/500sec @ f/8, ISO 6400
Very nice composition, David. The color balance looks fine to me as do the colors of the birds except possibly the wing patch on the female which seems just a bit gaudier than I’m used to seeing-but not far enough off to bother me. Interesting about the color tags. If LR has them, I haven’t encountered it, but I’m very, very far from being an expert.
Great to see you posting, David. Ill say that the composition well for me and that perch and the water colors are terrific. The colors look to be about right with maybe a touch too much saturation in the wing of the female but just barely so. Im viewing this on my phone so i cant really comment on the details but I’m sure they’re fine. You have definitely caught a tender moment between the two.
Hi David, great moment you captured with the female perched just above the male on the same branch. Details look good on both birds. As stated above the colors look fine to me except perhaps the female wing patch. Love the background colors in the water. A beautiful image.
Hi David, I can only echo the comments above, and even with less conviction as I do not really know the species 
… That said, the composition is wonderful and story-telling! Well done, Hans
@Dennis_Plank, @David_Haynes, and @Allen_Sparks thank you for the comments and suggestion on the female wing patch. I usually don’t touch the saturation tool and rarely use the RGB mode for a curves adjustment, preferring to add contrast via a Luma curve which doesn’t tweak the colors. Not sure how that wing patch got a bit popped, but since you each noted it, I’ve posted a rework above with the patch slightly desaturated and slightly darkened too. Let me know if that’s an improvement, or I I went too far.
Cheers,
David
Looks just about perfect to me, David.
Completely gorgeous!! What a wonderful catch, well composed and presented and I have no issues with the color, which looks completely natural. I have rarely seen these guys so wouldn’t have noticed the wing patch. I would go nuts if I had to rely on anything but ESP for color.
Looks terrific David. I think you nailed it.
Great image to get them both out of the water and on such a nice perch. The male gets all the attention, but the female has some attractive colors as well, which you show nicely. The water colors look good as well. Great capture.
