Recently back from a vacation in Dubai - loads of birds use the lush resorts as an oasis. This one paid a visit to the balcony of our hotel room.
I didn't have a lot of time to capture this image - and at the default 0ev it was under exposed. Some shadow recovery and a bit of Viveza magic and it began to look a lot better.
I also used the 'Tonal Contrast' filter in Color Efex Pro to bring out the feather detail - I could have restricted that effect to the bird's body if I'd have done it with the Photoshop plug-in but I used the Aperture variant which is whole scene only. This led to some banding in the legs which I cloned away. I would've sharpened it a little too - probably in Aperture's dodge and burn plug-in (which allows you to use a sharpen brush).
You did a good job recovering the exposure. His head and chest are a little dark, but I think that is because of how the light is falling. The bird is very crisp and I love his head tilt.
His eye pattern is very captivating. And nice job pp - the bird's feathers look crisp and I like that he is engaging in atypical behavior,looking up at a column. Makes me wonder what's up there!
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