A good looking fellow. I had to laugh at his stick. I had a spoonie with an even smaller stick that I posted a few months ago. A very slow way to build a nest.
The light angle hurts you here, resulting in the deep shadow on the back wing. You might be able to pull the shadows up a bit. The wing position itself is nice.
I might have been tempted to push the ISO up a bit to allow a smaller aperture and bit more DOF while maintaining the shutter seed. I would also consider lightening and sharpening the eye selectively. Another round of USM on the entire head and night might help as well.
I had minute so implemented the changes I mentioned:
1) lightened the shadows underwings and tail
2)Sharpened entire head with USM
3)Brightened the eye and increased contrast
I think it makes him pop a bit more. Just an option to consdier
Randy
PS: The saturation increased a bit from the conversion back and forth through NX2. I think it is a bit overdone, but you get the idea on the other changes at least.
Last edited by Randy Stout; 06-06-2009 at 08:34 PM.
I like the eye contact and nesting material. As Randy mentioned, it looks a bit underexposed, positive EC would have helped and there is a S/H halo around the bird. To avoid the halo it helps to select the bird before applying S/H.
Its interesting, in that I did no sharpening on the body, only the head and part of the neck. The halo, which was in the original, was worsened by bringing up the shadows under the wing. My main goal was to show what could be done, but I will watch for induced changes more carefully.
Roseate spoonbill
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