I’m gonna SQUASH you!

[Callie de Wet]

Cattle Egret, Bubulcus ibis, Kingdom: Animalia (Animals), Phylum: Chordata (Vertebrates), Class: Aves (Birds), Order: Ciconiiformes (Storklike Birds), "Family: Ardeidae (Herons, Egrets, Bitterns)", Veereier (Bosluisvoël), Kuhreiher, Garça-boieira, Héron garde-boeufs, Koereiger
Nikkor 600 F/4G ED-IF-AFS VR; Nikon_D300s; 600 mm; F6.3; 1/4000; ISO 800; AP, -0,03EV; 06h46 AM
Altercations at the breeding willow tree, Lonehill Sandton, Gauteng

Cropped away empty space on the right. Considered cropping and using only the top bird too, since the head of the lower one is obscured.

[Steve Canuel]

Great pose on the top bird, wish the bottom one was looking up. I like the little bit of tree in the LLC, helps anchor the action IMO. Overall, the image looks a touch dark. Might also desat the reds a touch although they do appear to be in breeding plumage so it could be an accurate representation.

[Hazel Grant]

I too wish the lower one was looking up, but I think cropping so that only the top one is in the photo would take away the drama of what's happening.

[Tony Whitehead]

Interesting interaction you've caught here, Callie. Agree that it looks under-exposed as presented. I would be tempted to crop a little off the right to make the most of the diagonal created by the birds. I think a little more sharpening would optimise web presentation as everything looks a little soft. Some NR on the BG would also help.

[Lance Peters]

Tony has nailed it - some sharpening and NR will definitely improve this, does look too dark on my screen.
tfs

[Callie de Wet]

Hi all, thank you for the comments and suggestions, much appreciated, I did the PP on my laptop screen, and yes, it came out dark. As soon as Paypal can sort out my account and I can pay my membership, I will upload the fixed version.
Best Regards
Callie

[Callie de Wet]

Tried a total rework from scratch, NR on BG and sharpening on birds and hopefully this is a better PP effort.:)

[Morkel Erasmus]

more detail in this version Callie but something still didn't look right.

I played with it for you...

Some of the steps I followed:
1. selectively sharpened the visible egret face (lasso selected, sharpen)
2. color balance - adjusted shadows, midtones and highlights from yellow to blue to get rid of the strong yellow
cast in the image. now the sky looked bluer and the egrets whiter.
3. colour still wasn't spot on so I went to curves and used the eyedroppers to select black, grey and white spots
in the image (whites set to R220 G220 B220). now the colours looked right.
3. selected the sky, contracted by about 5px and blurred Gaussian by 3px
4. selected egrets, contract by 2px, smart sharpen 0.2px 125%

that's it! :)

[Callie de Wet]

more detail in this version Callie but something still didn't look right.

I played with it for you...

Some of the steps I followed:
1. selectively sharpened the visible egret face (lasso selected, sharpen)
2. color balance - adjusted shadows, midtones and highlights from yellow to blue to get rid of the strong yellow
cast in the image. now the sky looked bluer and the egrets whiter.
3. colour still wasn't spot on so I went to curves and used the eyedroppers to select black, grey and white spots
in the image (whites set to R220 G220 B220). now the colours looked right.
3. selected the sky, contracted by about 5px and blurred Gaussian by 3px
4. selected egrets, contract by 2px, smart sharpen 0.2px 125%

that's it! :)

Thanks Morkel, its back to the drawing board for me!:(:D:(