Quote:

---

I tried using the Black slider to bring back some of the natural color, but didn't get the results I wanted. PeggySue's looked the best to me, so I went to work on the image...mainly in ACR with the Adjustment Tool working just on the background and putting a little light into the ears and this is the result. Also used the Adjustment Tool to put a little light into his chest and brightened the white there a bit.

---

Preston,

We used to have a pair of these guys that lived across the street and they were a pretty antsy pair. I can never resist taking a wack at one of these so here is my version with some of my ideas. I used CaptureNX2 with its localized control points to surgically lighten up some areas of the image. I didn't really have a problem with the dark background but I did lighten it up a little. I really concentrated on pumping some light into the face, primarily the ears, eyes and mouth. I thought that the intesity of the stare would be facilitated by being able to really see the eyes. I also lightened up the chest blaze. I selectively applied a little high pass sharpening, but sharpening an image at this low resolution is problematic. Anyway, here is my version with some of my ideas incorporated.