A Little Portrait Work

[Neil Nourse]

Common bird, but I thought it came out rather nice.
Thoughts?

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w118/nourse_photos/8K8I0014.jpg

EXIF IFD0
Camera Make Canon
Camera Model Canon EOS-1D Mark III
Picture Orientation normal (1)
Last Modified Date/Time 2010:05:12 20:48:14
Exposure Time (1 / Shutter Speed) 1/1000 second ===> 0.001 second
Lens F-Number / F-Stop 8/1 ===> ƒ/8
ISO Speed Ratings 320
Original Date/Time 2010:05:10 17:22:57
Shutter Speed Value (APEX) 9965784/1000000
Shutter Speed (Exposure Time) 1/1000 second
Aperture Value (APEX) 6/1
Aperture ƒ/8
Flash Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode
Focal Length 700/1 mm ===> 700 mm

[Dave Mills]

Hi Neil, The image is sharp,warm lighting and good detail.Exposure is well handled with good HA. To better balance the image I would take some off the top....

[Lance Peters]

Hi Neil - nice work - agree with Cave just a little off the top.
Like the BG and nice details throughout :)

[Oscar Vazquez-Ortiz]

Very nice! My display shows some halo (halo: not my fav subject!!! The guys know
what I am talking about!! LOL) on the right side of the bird

[David Thomasson]

Nice, sharp details and dead-on eye contact. Did you pay this guy to sit for you? :p

I agree with Lance about taking a bit off the top. A few other tweaks you might consider: Lighten the eye a little and enhance
the catchlight; brighten the blue part of the background to get more contrast with the dark feathers; a little curves boost to
the subject (masked off from the background). And a tad more sharpening for details in the feathers and the bill.

http://img532.imageshack.us/img532/2638/portraitj.jpg

[Tom Graham]

Yeah, David got it. Much more pop and impact.
Might also consider a little crop on right -and- flipping so looking left?
Tom

[Jamie Douglas]

Fan of the repost as I agree with Tom that it has more "pop". David worked his magic on a swan image I posted earlier in the year. I tend to avoid using borders but that is a personal preference. Common subject but great for practice shots to nail exposure and dof. Thanks for sharing. Jamie

[Neil Nourse]

Thanks for the comments Guys!

Dave I really like what you did :):) It brought it more to life.
As I am fairly new at this and (been shooting about a year and a half) my Photo Shop skills are not all that good yet, but I will have to give what you did a try!!
Guess that's how I will learn...

Neil