I had to slide the recovery slider all the way to the right for this one and also reduced a highlights just a tiny bit as the big white patch on the bird was hot, hot, hot! I selectively reduced the highlights in the BG as well selectively sharpening the bird.
This is a boy. The girls have an amazing yellow eye. He knew I was there but after I set up(after pulling the car over) he went about his business chasing little water creatures. Very amusing to watch him run about wings outstretched.
You were able to extract some pretty good texture in the white patch, so it wasn't blown. I don't know this bird, but suspect you could let the whites be just a tad brighter, retain the detail, and not look just a little bit dingy like they do now.
The pose is really nice, as is Head angle. Would be fun to see the female, the eye might really help the face to pop.
I think you have a nice balance on the background highlights
Sliver more room below for the virtual feet if you have it.
I find that when I really bring down whites, that there is a tendency for them to look a bit grey and dingy.
Just to get a better feel for it, I did look at it in CS5 just now, and most of the whites on the back are in the 230-235 range, with a few hot spots.
A optional way to treat them would be to go back to the original, make a selection on the whites and run a multiply blend mode on them and season to taste. That tends to selectively lower the brightness of the brightest whites without tending to dull the less bright ones as well.
Just an option. If you want to post the original, before any white work, might be fun for folks to have a go at it!
I think it is quite a charming image, very neat bird, just trying to take it to the next level.
I have no idea what your talking about in regards to "multiple blend mode" but I've heard it spoken of and I'll do some research on it. My PS skills are very much in the infant stage :o But.... I'm learning and I can't get over how much I have learned from people like yourself and other BP members/mods :D:D:D
edit - no more 'canvas' at the bottom of the frame.
Last edited by Chris Martinez; 12-21-2010 at 08:27 AM.