1\/640, f\/11, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\nEight days ago I took quite a few photos of this mated pair of Cinnamon Teals at Bear River MBR. Cinnamon Teals are one of the least common dabbling ducks in North America so I’m always delighted when they return for breeding season and we have them in good numbers. These two ducks appeared to be “talking” to each other and for me that’s the primary appeal of the image, especially given the animated foot action of the male for emphasis.<\/p>\n
The light was low and the two ducks were on different planes relative to me so it was a challenge to have enough depth of field to get them both sharp. F\/11 gave me sufficient DOF but it sure slowed my shutter speed. But the biggest problem I had was the lighting. The lighter female was brightly lit but light was hitting the darker male at a more oblique angle so he was much darker and I didn’t like the disparity. I tried to mitigate the problem as best I could in Adobe ACR during RAW conversion by adjusting highlights and shadows but I didn’t like the results.<\/p>\n
So for this version I used the dreaded Shadows\/Highlights tool in Photoshop on the jpeg. I say “dreaded” because that tool is notorious for causing processing artifacts such as sharpening halos so I almost never use it but I thought this image had enough potential to take the chance. The result is the version of the photo you see above and thankfully I’m not seeing a sharpening halo although I think it does have a bit of an “over-processed” look.<\/p>\n
But I still like it better than the original. Maybe…<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/cinnamon-teal-6704-no-adjustments-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"cinnamon-teal-6704-no-adjustments-ron-dudley\\"")
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This is what I started out with. All I’ve done to this version is globally sharpen the image. For my tastes the female is just too bright and the male too dark.<\/p>\n
Any thoughts? Should I have left “well enough” alone or is the Shadows\/Highlights version an improvement, despite what I perceive to be a bit of an over-processed look?<\/p>\n
Sometimes photographers try too hard to save an image that is unsalvageable and I hate being guilty of that more than I hate losing the image.<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
PS – I want to make it clear that I don’t really believe these two ducks were talking to each other. During breeding season especially Cinnamon Teals commonly perform head-pumping in the presence of other males and there was another mated pair of teals not too far out of frame to the left. These ducks were head-pumping and I just happened to catch both of their bills open with the male’s foot raised.<\/em><\/p>\nBut who knows, maybe they were doing both…<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I took a huge chance and used the dreaded Shadows\/Highlights tool in Photoshop on this image in an effort to save it.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/cinnamon-teal-6704b-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"cinnamon-teal-6704b-ron-dudley\\"")
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