Thanks to everyone who replied.
#2 is the clear winner. And truly when placed side-by-side, #2 just looks better.
What I have learned from this is to nudge my mental calibration towards the side of greater contrast and saturation.
Tom - truly appreciate the time you took to experiment with the photo and share the results. Now to my eyes and on my monitor - the result is a bit over-sharpened and the blue is less "inky" in your pic compared to what I remember from the field. Do like the direction you were going on the background and agree that the duller background of #1 and the bird of #2 are perhaps the best combo.
Thanks again for the feedback!
A very nice shot as is but for me the blue in the first looks more realistic and plenty saturated. A selective saturation of the birds "non blue" areas and the BG, lighten around the eye, and darken the BG would make this even better.
Very nice. I prefer # 2 also, Vivek. One thing that I noticed about Tom Sanders' modification is that the exposure of the eye area is much improved.
Sometimes, something as simple as using the dodge tool with a minimal exposure setting can help you acheive this result without over exposing the area.
spiderhunters wrote:
Now to my eyes and on my monitor - the result is a bit over-sharpened and the blue is less "inky" in your pic compared to what I remember from the field.
Vivek Tiwari
Vivek, as Morris said it all comes down to personal taste. However brightening the bg usually takes away from the subject, so if you want to add more impact to the image work only on the subject using subtly brightness, contrast, saturation and sharpening. This will make the subject stand out more and will keep the viewer's eyes on the subject.
Try it! You'll like it!
Socrate
Folks thanks again. The feedback and comments are really helpful.
Here's my final attempt.
Takes #2, darken and unsaturate the background a bit and fixed the exposure on a face just a tad. Closer to Tom Sander's edits.
BTW, the variation across monitors is rather bothersome. I use three monitors in the course of the day - a CRT at work, an LCD on my laptop and and a color calibrated HP LP2475w at home. Pictures look very different on each. I used to trust the CRT until recently but now stick with the HP for all photo work.
