2 Royal Spoonbills BIF.

[Ian McHenry]

This is a picture taken in June last year shortly after midday which was the only time the birds were in the air.
Pentax K10D and Sigma 400 AF.
400 ISO 1/2000 @ F5.6 Centre Weighted.
Ian McHenry

[Jim Poor]

Hi Ian.

Cool birds that I've never seen in the wild yet.

Looks like you have a pretty strong color cast. I played with getting rid of it as well as blurring some of the noise in the BG.

I wasn't using my tablet and wasn't very careful, but you can get an idea of a direction you may want to take this image.

Basically, I selected the birds and did a color adjustment with the black point eye dropper in levels. Then inverted teh selection to blur the BG. A little crop for my taste:

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Great to see this species. I agree on the magenta cast and too bad there is so much overlap.

[john crookes]

I hope to see the sun again

I think insted of a blur on this bg that noise reduction is a better choice as most of the issues are noise not distractions

Sometimes you need to run a blur and sometimes you need to run noise reduction
that is why we work on layers so you always have an escape route

John

ps there is a small smudge in llc not sure if it is dust or lens smudge

[Ian McHenry]

Thank you Jim, Axel & John.
Much to ponder here.
Appreciate your editing efforts.
I have since used Photoshop Elements to reduce red in Color Variations but came out too blue for my liking.
Will play with it image a bit more.
Ian Mc.

[Arthur Morris]

Great suggestions above to which I would add: Crop from the bottom for balance and this would get rid of the big ole dust spot.

later and love, artie

[Ian McHenry]

Thanks Artie
Well I tried something different.
Used Smart Fix in Coded Color and got this result.
Cheers: Ian Mc

[Jim Poor]

The color looks much improved here. Now just the noise in the BG. . .

[Ian McHenry]

Thanks Jim.
I'm reasonably happy with this result.
Haven't got round to learning selective sharpening and noise reduction yet !!!
Cheers: Ian Mc