Shaka, a Congo African Grey female. Like the light (from a window) in this one and that she's making eye contact.
PP - converted from RAW, cropped, white balance, 2nd layer (lightened bird, merged in multiply mode), dodged eye a bit, increased contrast, reduced noise, blurred background some more, desaturated a couple of yellowish areas on her face, shifted greenish hues bluer, resized, sharpened, added border, hand sharpened eye just a tad more.
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Post-challenge: well YAY for Shaka making my Profile page! We've now signed the adoption papers so I guess this is her introduction. We lost Hildy, our other CAG, back in May, and Shaka needed a home just when we decided we were ready for a Grey to fill that hole in our lives. We had up to 2 months to foster her and decide if it was working; it only took us two weeks. She's a sweetie :-)
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The dark BG in this highlights the features and eye very nicely. I suspect that you may have brought this shot up from being underexposed by the look in the darker areas of the feathers. It's a lovely shot, and the bit of noise gives it that "film shot" effect. Grays are noisy so it fits. Grays are the most wonderful of birds when they are in their "sweet bird" mode.
7 - Some funky things happening with the grain and noise (which kind of work, in my opinion), but I really like the composition and look on the parrot and especially like the muted colors.
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