[ftmftm]

i took this at christmas 2005 at sunderland wild fowl park, bloody cold day, hope you like, thanks for looking
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i2...fowlpark33.jpg

[Boo]

Its lovely. The only thing and I'm not sure if its my monitor but overall it looks a bit dark if it is my monitor then I apologise as its a very textured picture that works quite well

[CT]

I agree with Boo - it's a lovely shot, but it lacks a bit of sparkle. Have a play with the levels.

[Dave]

Also try the Unsharp mask at about 40-50%, radius 25 pixels, threshold 0, then pull that Levels centre slider to the left , to make your photo really pop

[jewel]

Looks like a christmas card David. I like this shot very much so!

Jewel

[Joe T]

It is dark, but maybe thats the effect the OP was going for?

However, definitely worth playing with the levels imo.

[ftmftm]

thanks for the reply's here is the same picture but with the levels, played with, i was going for dark and moody in the first picture.

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i2...1/wildfowl.jpg

here is the colour version aswell

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i2...dfowlpark2.jpg

[spxxxx]

Originally Posted by ftmftm

thanks for the reply's here is the same picture but with the levels, played with, i was going for dark and moody in the first picture.

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i2...1/wildfowl.jpg

here is the colour version aswell

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i2...dfowlpark2.jpg

Hmmm As a rule I always go for the B+W version - your rework looks great........... however the subtle colours of the original really work for the image....

Both excellent though

[Rob Barron]

Originally Posted by spxxxx

Hmmm As a rule I always go for the B+W version - your rework looks great........... however the subtle colours of the original really work for the image....

Both excellent though

I recommend splitting the difference on this one. The mono works well for sure but I think a toned mono would be better. If you were to tone it using blue, the picture would have a much colder, more wintry feel to it. I'd aim to up the contrast a touch to give the brighter areas a bit of sparkle.

I think you have burnt in the foreground snow by hand which is fine but it has created rather distracting halo around the bush areas. You'd be better off making a selection of the snow in the foreground (magic wand would work fine for this but make sure you UNcheck the contiguous box on the toolbar or else it will pick up all the white even on the bushes) then when you have selected it, feather the selection by 1-2 pixels (Hit ctrl+alt+D for the feather tool) and then put this onto a new layer (Ctrl+J).

Now you can do some dodging and burning in of the snow getting right in close to the bushes without affecting the actual bushes and without leaving a halo.

Don't get me wrong, I LIKE the picture a lot, beautfiully composed. That is why I think it is worth a bit of extra work as this could be a real cracker :o)

Cheers,
Rob