Emu....

Tonight I sat down to try and design an abstract (failed miserably)...lololol...I have now come to the conclusion, since I was judging I better not.

In its place I have submitted a photo I took the other day of a very tame Emu, between me feeding it corn and it trying to eat my lens, hair, hat, coat..etc

Hope you like it,

Good luck to all this coming week

Great job Paul! Yin and Yang! Kinda makes me dizzy though:D. I will be studying this! I think that I would like to have the eyes be more prominent (less opac).

Very nice composition. I like the detail in the feathers but would also like to see the eyes less opaque although you may have tried that and not liked the result.

Paul, I agree w/ the others regarding the eyes. Very nice abstract feel to this and I love it! You will be an excellent judge and I look forward to more like this! !Very nicely done!!

Thanks All

Retried image...with stronger eyes

IMO I would leave the eyes...problem being that when eyes are stronger, to me at least they dominate the image.
I wanted the S-shape (beak and black around head), to be the eye draw, seems to make it more of a optical illusion.

Again though only IMO. :D

Paul, I see your point-but I love the repost!

Hey Paul,
What say you to toning down some of the brighter areas...just slightly so not to take away from the S curve?

Roman..one of the things I've never gotten good at is toning down the whites...How do I do that, and not effect whole image?

Hey Paul,
You may want to try shadow/highlights.....0 on the shadows......and see what the highlight recovery does........otherwise try lassoing the brighter area.....and pull back on the brightness......don't forget to blur the layer mask until it just disappears. Probably a few more methods too! If I get a chance.....I will give it a go.

PS below is the repost.....I think it took it too far away from your OP as I lost the curve...sorry!.....but figured I'd repost anyway to give you some possible ideas. A reverse s-curve first (Robert A had a tutorial in the landscape forum sticky) and then a bunch of brightness/contrast layers.....taking down the brightness. Again.....I think this evened out the tones a bit much.....but gives you possible ideas.

Paul very freative image Roman's repost take this to top
TFS

Roman's repost really brought out those eyes.

Roman's repost does it for me! A mezmerizing creation IMO! Good work Paul!

Wow...Roman good job..I see what you did..I'll try and work on this image a little more, your right about my original OP..below is what I was working on as an abstract of the original, centre image has whites toned down..but darks still need work...Thanks for all your help..to everyone

I like B:)