Afternoon swim

[Grandpaw]

What do you think about the highlights on the body? I just re-sized it, no PS, Jeff

[MB1]

Great positioning of the bird in the frame and I really like the ripples in the water as a framing element. Again the colors seem to be a bit muted.

[SmartWombat]

Under-exposed I think.
Rather than the usual over-exposure of white birds on dark water.
If you used exposure compensation, I think you can go 2/3 stop brighter.

[SmartWombat]

The majority of the image is mid-grey which I think is the lighter parts of the water.
The other peak is near black, which I think is the darker parts of the water.
The brightest parts of the duck seem to be about 3/4 of the way to maximum.

If you want as bright as possible on the duck without over-exposing it, so that it appears white, then there should be more to the right of the histogram.

[Grandpaw]

The majority of the image is mid-grey which I think is the lighter parts of the water.
The other peak is near black, which I think is the darker parts of the water.
The brightest parts of the duck seem to be about 3/4 of the way to maximum.

If you want as bright as possible on the duck without over-exposing it, so that it appears white, then there should be more to the right of the histogram.

Thanks for the explanation. I have been trying to figure out how to read the histogram and what to do to improve my results. There is a lot of things on my D80 that I am learning how to use that I haven't had before. Thanks again, Jeff

[gahspidy]

The framing is good, Grandpa. I agree with Paul it is underexposed. It should be easy to use your levels in PS or whatever your using to edit and bring the whites back in. It's not too far off. That should also help with the muted color as MB1 pointed out.

[SmartWombat]

The site was down for upgrading last night.
Now you can follow this link to the learn section http://www.photographyreview.com/histogramguidecrx.aspx
and see our histogram guide.