I was pretty happy with this image when reviewed on the monitor. Taken at Ft. Desoto in early June. Cropped from horizontal, but full-frame top to bottom (plus some canvas added above).
I'd be happy with this one too Daniel! I took the liberty of adjusting the levels on your photo because the blacks don't look truly black on my monitor. Of course I've never seen one of these in person, so this repost may be totally off. What do you think?
Great Shot Dan..its very tough to get these birds with the eye showing like that, usually eye blends in with black of head, I agree with Doug though, on these birds the blacks are richer and the bill is much more darker orange..but as always a beautiful photo...Paul
Nice composition and great detail caught in the eye there.
I agree with Doug on the color being a little off. But rather than doing a levels adjustments to the image, you'd be better off adjusting the white balance via a curves adjustment layer. You'll maintain better color control that way with the separate channels.
I hope you don't mind, I downloaded the image, converted to 16 bit, adjusted the WB via a curves adjustment layer, then did a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer adjusting the saturation to +9. The result is a more vibrant image that has more accurate color and also does not blow out the whites or over saturate the blacks. I almost always choose curves over levels.