Female Cow Bird
Techs:
Canon 40D
Canon 400MM 5.6L
Gitzo 3530LS
Mongoose 3.5
EV=-2/3
1/1600
f/5.6
Morning light
ISO=320
Workflow
CR2--->LII (35% crop, minor curves, clarity adjustments)--TIFF-->NN (two passes)----TIFF--->CS4 (sharpen, minor spot adjustments to perch)--->JPEG
Nice species indeed. You may be able to selectively tone down the light on the front, as it appears just a little strong. Good pose! I would crop the space above by half. :)
Thanks, can you give me a tip on how to reduce zone/selective light in CS4?
Hi Jeff,
I like the composition and capture...you have fine sharp details, with a good head angle and clear eye...I too recommend toning down the light area to the left of the bird, also need to saturate the eye just a little more and selective sharpen it...looking forward to your next one...:cool:
HI Jeff - Agree with Gus's comments - Would just tone down the one bright spot in the BG - Well done :)
Hi Jeff
I had a go at it. All I did was duplicated the layer and worked on that. I picked the MAGIC WAND tool, which you can get by pressing the W key or it looks like a diagonal stick with a star on the tip at the top. It is the second tool from the tool palette (when in two rows) from the top on the RHS.
I set tolerance at 32 and ticked ANTI ALIAS and CONTIGUOUS then clicked inside the hot area. That neatly selected the entire hot part (I kind of fluked it with the selection). But setting the tolerance up or down you will see how it affects what pixels are selected.
Then I picked the BURN tool (looks like a semi closed hand) or press the key O for Oscar that is. And I used this key ] to increase brush size to a very large size, that encompassed an area much bigger than the selection. Needless to say that any "burning" was done inside the selection only anyway.
Then I clicked the left mouse button a couple of times until the darkening appeared to match the surrounding plumage. Mind you I am far from an expert in PS.
What do you think? Is it overdone?
I have added a screen grab of the tools used (circled yellow - magic wand on top and burn lower) and showing you the layer (yellow circle again on RHS). You can see the selection area with the wand tolerance settings and also the large size of the burn tool. See how big?
Jeff agree with what has been said so far. Liker what Akos did with the front of the bird.
You have some really fine feather detail, super nice, and good eye contact..Good job!
Jeff, Agree with comments above-Like the pose and HA -Good Job!
Great thread and comments !!! Doing great !!!
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