Just outside the place where Rosie and I had lunch today was a lake with lots of exotic ducks and black swans. Sadly the gate was closed so we had to take photos through the wire fence. There were a few of these beautiful Mandarin ducks - they really do not look real!!
Exposure slightly adjusted following Jane Pittenger's comments.
@jgpittenger Joan I am not sure what you mean about this being a tad hot? What does that mean? I had to use a high ISO 3200 as it was so dark. The RAW image was imported to LR and a few minor adjustments to exposure , contrast sharpening, noise reduction were done - nothing very much changed from the RAW image. What makes the shot hot?
@pamknowler Hot means a bit over exposed.. On my monitor it looks as if if you brought the exposure down just a teeny bit, the beautiful colors of the duck would really sing...just a thought. It is a beautiful shot of a beautiful bird
@jgpittenger Jane I went back to the original Raw file and I had slightly increased the exposure as the whites on the histogram did not touch the RHS. I had the highlighting thing switched on and the whites did not show as over exposed which is what I have been taught to watch out for. That's not very technical is it!! Anyway I took the photo into Picmonkey as I did not want to upload again and loose all my lovely comments. I slightly adjusted the brightness and replaced the image. Do you think it looks any better?
What a beauty!!! The shading, the colours, the definitions, the shape! How curious Nature is that some like him get an overload of beauty, and others, not to much. For whatever the reasons, they adapt where they're placed! Congratulations for taking this (quite understandably!) to the PP!