Don Poulton
July 2025 - Blue Winged Teal Pair
About the Image(s)
During a recent camera club outing to a conservation area on the south shore of Lake Ontario just east of Hamilton, ON, I captured a series of shots of this pair of ducks. I used my Canon 7D mark II with my 100-400 lens and 1.4x extender at 1/2000 and f/5.6 ISO 400 on a hazy sun morning. None of my individual shots showed both ducks in a good pose but I was able to create a composite image where I brought the male duck onto this image of the female and masked and adjusted settings to make them appear natural. Any comments are welcome (can you see where the images are masked together?)
10 comments posted
Don, this is a very nice, well cropped image of a Blue Winged Teal pair. Your composite of the two ducks is perfect and really like the catch lights. I thought the image was a little flat so I used haze removal and now it pops somewhat. May not look natural? What do you think? Posted: 07/04/2025 00:34:51
Thanks Tom. It may be a bit overdone, I feel there's a bit of a dark halo around the ducks, especially behind the male's head. Posted: 07/04/2025 18:24:04
Masterful blending. Tom's idea is good, just maybe a bit too much. Ducks need some oomph and definition. Too blah otherwise. Posted: 07/08/2025 07:02:51
Don, hope you don't mind but I am at it again. Tried to leave the ducks the same yet reduce the overdone contrasty (by me) water. Posted: 07/08/2025 12:30:45
Looks better now. Thanks Tom. Posted: 07/08/2025 14:12:43
Don, This is a nice composite of two ducks and until I read your story line, I did not notice (and still dont) that this was a composite. Your positioning of the male duck was done well. Your photo is a bit flat but the work done by Tom creates much more detail in the feathers and brings out more color. Nice image. Posted: 07/13/2025 21:11:28
Don, you did a good job combining the two ducks. As said above Tom image does add more detail in the feathers and does add color. Well thought out. Good job! Posted: 07/14/2025 00:52:41
Don, you did a good job combining the two ducks. As said above Tom image does add more detail in the feathers and does add color. Well thought out. Good job! Posted: 07/14/2025 01:13:29
I am not sure the addition of the male helps the shot. The male itself is very well captured and would make a great close-up stand alone image. If you keep both in the frame, perhaps they could be closer together? Posted: 07/17/2025 10:06:57
The composite is OK. I think the negatives are both birds are facing away and the water is very dirty. Posted: 07/27/2025 08:22:21