About the Image(s)

I’ve run out of brackets that won’t repeat relatively recent submissions so I am going with a different approach that gets toward the same end even if not traditional HDR. This month’s image is from a 2011 trip to Bosque del Apache. It is based on a single frame taken with a Canon 7D 500mm lens with 1.4x on, iso 400, F8 at 1/400. It was taken just after sunrise with the subject heavily backlit. The breast clipped out even sacrificing the shadow detail. My approach was to triple process the original file (straight copy provided). The original was denoised using Camera Raw and tuned slightly to set the whites and blacks then opened as a smart object. That smart object was copied using Create Smart Object via Copy. It was edited back in Camera Raw to increase the exposure by 2 stops and tune the main body of the duck. Once that was opened in Photoshop, I made a second copy of the original by that technique, went back into ACR and focused only on dropping the exposure, highlights and whites in the breast are to bring back as much detail as possible. The three different layer were then blended with masks. In retrospect I might have wanted a fourth version tuning the shadow reflection of the duck to something a bit lighter just to keep the light balance a bit more realistic.