Mourning Dove

[Rich Reich]

This Mourning Dove was captured in Corkscrew Swamp in Naples Florida on 2/24/09 at 4:37 PM.

Nikon D200, f 6.3, 1/250 sec, ISO 200, 400mm

Rich Reich

[Ben Egbert]

Nice image, good pose, fairly good background. You have some pretty heavy halos as viewed on my monitor. I would also tone down the light areas of the background and do some smoothing.

[Harshad Barve]

nice pose but there are big halos agreed with Ben about BG & smoothing
TFS

[Rich Reich]

By smoothing do you mean noise reduction or image softening?

[Ben Egbert]

I meant the backround not noise. I did not see noise. Some of the dark green areas are a bit sharper than I like. I use a gausian blur layer with a brush to soften these areas. I would also darken the whites just above the birds back. The tree turnk could laso use some blur. But this is just my taste.

The halo starts at the birds back, goes around the head and almost to the feet. Looks like what I get when I try adding some DR, or if I use a haze brush. When I am doing that sort of work, I stay inside the subject. A heavy global sharpening could also add the halo.

You could also use a mask, but I am still learning to mask.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the eye contact and sharpness. Adding to the other comments I would tone down the highlights on the perch, they are partially overexposed. Keep them coming!

[Ed Cordes]

All of the above advice is excellent. I just wanted to say that these pretty birds don't often get the recognition they deserve for their feather color variation. Nice detail in the eye.

[Fabs Forns]

Nice depicting of a common bird often ignored. Other than the halo issue, very nicely done, thanks for sharing, Rich.
PS: Long time no see :(

[Rich Reich]

I've adjusted the exposure on the post so that it is not over exposed on the upper right side. It does help by eliminating a distraction. Thanks for the critique. I'm working only in Lightroom. I can't seem to soften the backgound in a significant way.

Rich