Bob:
Welcome to BPN! A lovely bird for your first post. Great detail in the underwing area, despite the light angle.
Did you use fill flash? It helps a lot to include all the tech details, such as aperture, shutter speed, ISO, any flash, handheld vs. tripod, etc.
The background must surely be highrises? I would do some gaussian blur to reduce the detail there, unless you are trying to make an envrionmental shot.
The eye looks a bit unusual.
I would give the bird a little more room to breath, esp. in the direction it is flying, down and to the left.
Thanks for the comments, as to the background I was trying to show the environment as these birds are seen around the high rise building of Hong Kong. The shot was handheld and no-fill flash
By all means, if you are linking the bird to their environment, the detail in the background is about perfect. You can tell whats back there, but it isn't distracting.
What did you do for your post processing? It looks good, but I am still intrigued by the lighting here.
It was done in Photoshop CS (sorry I don't have the latest version) and I like using the snapshot & history brush. No fancy work done as I am only a beginner.
I should have added
Exposure Bias: 0.7 EV
Bob
Last edited by Bob Thompson; 05-28-2009 at 08:32 PM.
Reason: extra info
You lost the eye in the second post, looks very dark. You did an excellent job with the sharpens. I also would like to see a little more room all around. Hope to see more of your images.
Good to see you here Bob, the next step up from digiscoping then!
Lots of underwing detail and I do prefer your first post. Could the head and eye show reflection from off the water in the first post? Looks like a stack of containers in the BG.