Me and my duck

[Deleted User]

I took this shot over the weekend, and it was pretty cloudy and overcast, I thought on the whole it came out well, problem is now I have lighten it a bit, cropped it and resized it, it does not look so good.

So I welcome comments of where I have gone wrong



Exif details
Apperture F5.6
Focal 155mm
Exposure 1\200s
ISO 400
Format was raw
Camera Canon 400D with 70\200mm lense

Tim

Maestro

Nice image. What could be done differently?

1) I think you cropped it too much. For composition's sake, you do not want to center your subject so much plus, I think you softened the pic too much with the crop. Since you shot in RAW, I'd go back and not crop as much or any at all.

2) Some of the whites are blown. After processing your RAW file to a JPEG, use the Photoshop function, Shadows and Highlights to try to soften some of the white. Sometimes you can, other times you can't. Make sure you use the quick selection tool to choose just the mallard. Outline it with the tool so you do not mess with other areas of the photo.

3) Perhaps apply some Hue/Saturation while you still have the duck outlined with the selection tool.

4) Apply some Unsharp Mask too while the subject is still highlighted.

Harryb

I agree with most of Stephen's suggestions.

I would attempt to adjust the exposure in your RAW conversion software. TheHighlights/Shadows tool works very well but it also brings out noise in underexposed shots.

Since you had to lighten it up it sounds like you underexposed the shot. When you lighten up the shot it will bring out some noise. I would apply some NR to a layer mask and only apply it to the background.

[Deleted User]

Cheers guys I will have a play tonight and post a recomposed picture

Tim

Maestro

Harryb wrote:

I agree with most of Stephen's suggestions.

I would attempt to adjust the exposure in your RAW conversion software. TheHighlights/Shadows tool works very well but it also brings out noise in underexposed shots.

Since you had to lighten it up it sounds like you underexposed the shot. When you lighten up the shot it will bring out some noise. I would apply some NR to a layer mask and only apply it to the background.

Agree once again. Work on the exposure first then shadow/highlights.

[Deleted User]

Ok here my second take on the duck



I have cropped it but not as close as before and moved the crop off centre, because I photo the duck in the centre of the picture and quite large in the frame I did not have a lot of room to move, I choose the tarmac as opposed to the river as the reflections looked to blown out.

I have played with colours, brithness, exposure etc. and while I think I have improved the pictureI still look at it and think there is still some way to go, like the white tail feathers. Not only am I new to photography I am new to Photo Elements.

Tim

P.S. Mr Admin\Moderator, I realise this is becoming more a technique thread, if you wish to move it to another forum by all means do so.

Maestro

Much better Tim!