Dove

[Wendy Kates]

This is from my backyard setup. I tried to expose to the right for the dove without blowing out all the highlights of the snow, but I'm not sure if I succeeded. Comments are welcome.
Canon 7D, 70 - 200mm f/4 lens at 200mm, f/4, 1/250s, ISO200; cropped and sharpened in Photoshop CS4

[Clyde Hopper]

Hi Wendy, I can see some shadows in the snow ,so i wonder if you could use an adjustment layer with a mask ? lowering the exposure and then painting the mask to reveal the parts that are pleasingly exposed already ? Beautiful Dove BTW . Love the feathers . I bealieve I would cheat ,and add a catch light to the eye ,too.

[Wendy Kates]

Thanks, Clyde. I followed your suggestion about an adjustment layer / mask that lowered the exposure of the snow, although I was pretty conservative. I only lowered it to about -.15. I wasn't sure how to do the catch light. See what you think.

[Clyde Hopper]

Wendy I'm sorry ,but my eye is not acute enough to tell any deference . may just be the lap-top I'm on at present , But I suspect you tried it at extremes ? and it didn't look so good ? I'm sure some others will come along and advise . as far as a catch light ,I just add a white spot in the upper part of the eye in a spot where the sun may have been in the reflection . some times just dodging the eye will bring out enough to draw attention to the eye . With most everything in photography ,I'm sure there are as many ways to do things as there are people willing the share there ways .

[Wendy Kates]

Hmmm...now that I'm looking at it on-line, I'm not seeing much of a difference either. I'll try again later. --Wendy