The Story Behind the Photo: Wood Ducks in a Tree

Wood Ducks in a Tree Photo Story

Not sure why but I normally don’t think about ducks being up in a tree. I found these two wood ducks about ½ mile deep in the woods and about 50 feet up in a tree.

Wood ducks do nest in the holes of trees but this was a ½ mile from the marsh at Sandy Ridge reservation in Ohio. Anyone familiar with this duck behavior?

Wood Ducks Photo Details

Camera: Canon 5d Mark iii
Lens: Canon 500mm f/4 with 1.4x teleconverter
Focal Length: 700mm
ISO: 500
Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/1250 second
Exposure Compensation: +2/3
Lighting: Dark and Shady

Wood Duck Photo Post Processing

Cropped the photograph in Lightroom 5.
Used Google Viveza 2 to selectively lighten and darken portions the photo.
Processed the photo using the Simple Pop Filter in Topaz Adjust 5.
Lightened the wood ducks and darkened the background using the Darken/Lighten Center Filter in Color Efex Pro 4.
Used Topaz DeNoise and a Layer Mask in Photoshop CC to selectively remove the noise from the photo.
Selectively sharpened the image using the Unsharp filter and a Layer Mask in Photoshop CC

Written by Martin Belan

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