Black Vulture

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Techs:
Canon 40D
Canon 400MM 5.6
HH
f/5.6
1/1600
ISO=320
EV=0
Mid-morning light

Workflow:
LR (full frame, minor exposure adjustments - push +1/3)----interface-->CS4 (selective sharpen eye, smart sharpen, selective color adjustments, dodge eye, Topaz de-noise)

For those who might understand the inside joke - Total time spent, post processing image 27 minutes (smile)

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

I like the contrasting BG with the subject. You appear to have enough DOF, but I would suggest more sharpening as it looks just a little soft to me. Thanks for sharing Jeff. :)

[Kobus Tollig]

Nice portrait here well exposed. Ditto softness. Well done

[Jeff Cashdollar]

More Sharpening

[Randy Stout]

Jeff:

I agree with Akos and Kobus about the sharpness. For close up portraits like this to work, they just have to be killer sharp, at least on the eye.

I might lower the overall brightness of the image just a bit.

Thanks for sharing. It is good that his mother loves him, as this is one ugly bird :) :)

Randy

[Colin Morey]

I think it looks soft, especially on the neck, perhaps not soft, but hazy if that makes sense? I like the catchlight though, nice and clear. ditto on the brightness, perhaps a slight tweak to the black point before sharpening?

At least its beak is clean... :)

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Jeff,

Your repost is a 100% improvement as far as I can see. Congrats, good job mate. :) Not sure if you follow this method, but after you resize the image for web, zoom into 100% and see how the sharpening changes the appearance of the final image. That's the key. :)