# Cockatiel Portrait



## Desertbird (Aug 24, 2010)

My softbox bulb died on me, so I had to use some makeshift lighting.  I want to lower the intensity in the face and make it kind of match the intensity of the mid-lower body, but not sure how to isolate the upper area and still make it flow, if that makes any sense. I'm not very photoshop savvy, so I would probably end up using the burn tool if no one suggested anything else.  Open to ideas


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## Fatback (Aug 24, 2010)

Very nice, and Beautiful Bird!

Is this what you was talking about with the face?


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## Desertbird (Aug 24, 2010)

That's definitely closer to what I'm looking for, I guess I just want the vividness toned down on the head without losing all the color, it kinda looks like a headlight to me, but then again maybe it's just me.  I keep thinking that people are going to look at it and feel like their going blind :greenpbl:


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## Fatback (Aug 24, 2010)

In what ever editing program you are using. Use the selective tool to select the part you want to edit. Then you should be able to change the saturation, and Vibrance on just that section. At least you can in Photoshop, and Gimp. After some work you should be able to match the tone with the body. That was just a 30 sec edit I did. With 10 mins you could probably get it perfect.


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## PenguinPhotoWrx (Aug 25, 2010)

The editing techniques aside, I like the original better... as a cockatiel owner, I like the contrast between the head and the rest of the body as it brings out their personality, IMO. With a yellow bird, you need a little more "pop" in the color of the head.

Beautiful bird, by the way. Male? Female? Hard to tell sometimes- we thought ours was a male for many years until she layed eggs.

Anyway- how did you get it to stand still long enough for this nice portrait? Mine gets pissed when the camera comes out.


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## Desertbird (Aug 25, 2010)

PenguinPhotoWrx said:


> The editing techniques aside, I like the original better... as a cockatiel owner, I like the contrast between the head and the rest of the body as it brings out their personality, IMO. With a yellow bird, you need a little more "pop" in the color of the head.
> 
> Beautiful bird, by the way. Male? Female? Hard to tell sometimes- we thought ours was a male for many years until she layed eggs.
> 
> Anyway- how did you get it to stand still long enough for this nice portrait? Mine gets pissed when the camera comes out.



Thanks, I didn't consider that, maybe I'll keep it like that and just get more opinions. I guess we are our own worst critics haha.

This is the eldest son of my mated pair, his name is Echo.  I tried to get a photo of his back, because it's pretty stunning.  He kept turning around though.  He's a pied, but the grey pied areas are scalloped like a pearl (making him a pied pearl).  It's neat though because males loose their pearl markings, but the pied gene actually makes it so that all traits that are bound by sex is obsolete, which is why I thought he was female when he was still a baby, but his personality is definitely that of a male.  He's got a lutino girlfriend, and I'm curious to see what their babies will look like.

This portrait took forever, I had to pull out my remote because every time he heard the camera lens focusing (great hearing) he would look directly at the camera.  I had to sit there and take lots of pictures so he would get used to it.  Then I moved off to the side and started waving my arms to get his attention, and used the remote to take several more pics.


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