Kosmic Kite

I tried out my new D300 today but we had no sun, so, I got some less than perfect White-tailed Kite shots.
So :D, armed only with noisy images, I got lost in PS and when I found my way out, this is what I brought with me:p.

Dan, I need you to remember what you did. I love it!!! The colors are fantastic!

Ok, here we go. I am sure that I will be leaving some steps out though! I started by processing and cropping the image, selective sharpening, selective noise reduction, ran a Seeram "sketch" action which stops at every step for interaction (which I participated in). Then, I added a Seeram "snowstorm, blizzard" (this is not an ice cream dessert!!) on a new layer (I think?) and fooled with the blending modes. This produced the starry effect. I flattened this and created a new layer which I added "clouds" and then "difference clouds". I reduced the opacity of this layer to my liking and then erased it partially on the underwing and completely in the face area and feet area. I had to paint the eye back in as it had been obliterated by the above:p. I adjusted the levels and saturation a bit and, FINALLY, I woke up:D.

Dan, Your getting very good at this stuff! Thanks for taking the time to share-much appreciated!

This is a very good image Dan, I like the effect...well done....:cool:

Dan, that is really something! Any idea what made the dark mark on the back wing? I'd try to clone that out/down a bit as I find myself staring at it more than the bird.

Very cool BG!!!

Thanks guys. Julie, that dark mark on the back wing is actually the under wing markings,
it sort of belongs there:(

Well then by all means leave it! I've never seen one of these in person and was just wondering if it was something that occurred in pp. My bad!

dan, i saw one of the original versions of this and it wasnt bad either!! really nice PS work here. i like what you did, really creating a mood!!