A Snowy

[Katie Rupp]

I love the Snowy's yellow feet; this one is from Gatorland. Minimal PS, just cropped and sharpened. C&C encouraged and greatly appreciated.

1dm3; Manual mode; f7.1, 1/1250; ISO 400; 100-400 @400

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the look-back pose and composition. I might tone down the whites a bit more, remove the spot on the bill and might lighten the BG a tad for better separation.

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Katie Agree with Axel Love the pose and overall feel, exposure wise would have given less light for the whites. Bg is dark already so no need to lift shadows. Excellent image !!!

[Katie Rupp]

Thanks Axel and Alfred; I toned down the whites, removed the spot on the bill and lightened the BG and I think it looks better; hope you do, too.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Yes, the repost looks much better, maybe a slight contrast boost?

[Daniel Cadieux]

I like the repost better as far as the egret goes, but I didn't mind the dark BG. Maybe something between the two BG-wise - perhaps adding some contrast will take care of that (careful with the whites!). I like the pose with the sweeping head feathers.

[Randy Stout]

Katie:

I like the pose, dark background and clean image. Whites are a bit bright for my taste. The repost lost the snap/contrast of the original.

In my repost, I selected the whites in the bird, switched the blend mode to multiply, adjusted opacity to 65%.
You can tweak to your taste, but to my eye it kept the nice background and contrast on feet and legs, while toning down the whites some. There are lots of other ways to work it, but thought this might provide some options for you.

Cheers

Randy

[Katie Rupp]

Thank you, Randy; I like your enhancement because I wanted to keep the look of the feet and legs; I will try your suggested process...I think I would still like the bg to be just little bit lighter, between my first and second versions. I really appreciate you taking the time to help improve this image; it's one I'd like to keep.
Regards,
Katie