Touch & Go

[Brian Sump]

A frame from the winter when I caught this Common Goldeneye drake with his wingtips grazing the river surface along the snowy banks in Colorado.

Canon R5
600mm

ISO 3200
1/2500
f4

LR and PS. Starting to use a hybrid between LR denoise and Topaz - experimenting on how the white and colors are affected by both, then brushing in whichever I think looks best.

[kevin Hice]

Nice Brian, ducks position is great and the whites look fantastic.Neat how the wings are touching the water. Only downside just wish you had better color on the water nothing you could do about that. Brian I have really cut back on any noise reduction but I think noise in Photoshop may be better than Topaz. TFS

[Gerald Kelberg]

Hi Brian,

Nice action caught here!

I'm really liking the clarity and detail on the wing - looks terrific. Pose is great and the overall processing looks great.

Background gives a wintry coolness without being obvious.

Thanks for sharing,

Gerald

[Jonathan Ashton]

Yes it looks pretty ideal to me super pose/timing, accurate colours, very nice indeed.
NR - I used to prefer DxO I have V3, when V4 came out Adobe deNoise was already there. I trialled V4 DxO but couldn't really percieve any difference between V3 and V4. Adobe DeNoise just seems to fit nicely in the workflow. Steve Perry on YouTube has an interesting variation on the use of DeNoise and I think this produces good results.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Brian ... very nice flight shot of this lovely duck species , love the wings touching the water !!!
Great fully extended down stroke of the wings , nice combo with the concentrated facial expression .
Well controlled black and whites , with lovely details showing up ...
You surprise me that you keep the 3/4 tones that " dull and bright " ... I think they should go darker in the plumage and bill , matter of taste I guess !!
Not sure about your chosen color grading in the mid tones / neutrals ... to me there is quite a magenta /reddish cast visible , but you might like that way ... and you have seen the duck in reality .
I have tried to neutralize the " neutrals " with selective color .... by removing magenta from the neutrals by 6 % , does look more " natural/neutral to me . You might want to check it yourself

Regardless of my vision , a shot that I would like to call mine

TFS Andreas

[Brian Sump]

Thank you for the great feedback everyone!

Andreas, always appreciate your comments. Very good points/questions.

RE Magenta, I didn't do anything specifically to the wings vs back vs head, etc. I noticed some magenta and the last step I took in processing before the image I posted, I actually went to hue/sat and reduced Magenta by -45. I think what's left is just a natural tint, but do agree how it comes across strong.




RE 3/4, are you saying like #2 or #3 darks mask range on TK? Which tones specifically if you can help me understand?

.....

[Brian Sump]

Yes it looks pretty ideal to me super pose/timing, accurate colours, very nice indeed.
NR - I used to prefer DxO I have V3, when V4 came out Adobe deNoise was already there. I trialled V4 DxO but couldn't really percieve any difference between V3 and V4. Adobe DeNoise just seems to fit nicely in the workflow. Steve Perry on YouTube has an interesting variation on the use of DeNoise and I think this produces good results.

Thanks Jon. Very tempted to try out DxO!

[Brian Sump]

Hi Brian ... very nice flight shot of this lovely duck species , love the wings touching the water !!!
Great fully extended down stroke of the wings , nice combo with the concentrated facial expression .
Well controlled black and whites , with lovely details showing up ...
You surprise me that you keep the 3/4 tones that " dull and bright " ... I think they should go darker in the plumage and bill , matter of taste I guess !!
Not sure about your chosen color grading in the mid tones / neutrals ... to me there is quite a magenta /reddish cast visible , but you might like that way ... and you have seen the duck in reality .
I have tried to neutralize the " neutrals " with selective color .... by removing magenta from the neutrals by 6 % , does look more " natural/neutral to me . You might want to check it yourself

Regardless of my vision , a shot that I would like to call mine

TFS Andreas

Actually, I went back in and it looks like it's reds not magentas that snuck in there. Not sure how/why, but agree much better and cleaner going -10 reds on hue/sat:

[Andreas Liedmann]

RE 3/4, are you saying like #2 or #3 darks mask range on TK? Which tones specifically if you can help me understand?

.....

If you want to isolate the 3/4 tones ... the darks mask does not work , as it does include the blacks as well !!! And I do want the blacks not going any darker .
You need to use the tone selector in the TK panel or use a mid tones mask ( 2) and paint the used edit through the mask !!! Hope you understand my words .. from the technical character .
If not drop me a line ....

[Andreas Liedmann]

Actually, I went back in and it looks like it's reds not magentas that snuck in there. Not sure how/why, but agree much better and cleaner going -10 reds on hue/sat:

Does look better indeed ... personally I would go further and use other tools and selections in PS and not the hue/ sat layer . But this is just a question of taste ....
And to clarify my vision with the magentas ... it is easy to understand as I do use the LAB color reading to identify any casts . In the LAB there are no red numbers to read just green / magenta and blue /yellow ....

[William Dickson]

Very nice Brian. Love these birds and photographing them. The wings touching the water takes it up a few notches. Personally I am not very good at the colour balance, but I would have liked to see a touch more contrast, as per your usual Fab feather detail, perfect HA and pose. The greens on the head, the yellow eye, and the white patch look fab.

Will