Heron in Flight - Here's the Before and After - Please Help

[Jewel]

Okay, had posted this a few days ago. Did some re-work on this pic, but still don't think it is as good as it can be. Here is my attempt at touching-up:
http://images.fotopic.net/?id=4579597&outx=760&oq=0

Here is the original picture untouched:
http://images.fotopic.net/?id=4579596&outx=760&oq=0

Please give me suggestions and/or please fix it better and tell me how you did it.

Thanks so much in advance for any input,
Jewel :roll:

[Scottes]

It does look *much* better, but I find the shaded area on the left to be distracting.

[RbnDave]

I like the post processed shot much better. Have to agree with Scottes on the shadow in the left being distracting.

Also I miss the heron's shadow in the processed image.

Maybe you should try removing some saturation from the grass. That might make the heron stand out a little more. Also you might try slightly blurring the grass. I'm not sure if those suggestions will work, but they might be worth a try.

Dave

[Jewel]

Ya, I may try cropping it different to show the shadow.

How do I blur the grass without blurring the bird? Do I need to use the magnetic lasso tool cut the bird out, and do it like that?

Jewel

[stopbath]

I would not be so severe in cropping. Leave some environment around the big bird to show where he is (he's in a big field and flying only a couple of feet off the ground). The grass is rather dull in the original, but I prefer it over the fake look of the modified version.

The clump of brown below and infront of the bird could be removed, and the trees past the bank are a distraction. They could be cropped out too.
The stream adds interest and seems like where the bird is flying too.

[Scottes]

Ya, I may try cropping it different to show the shadow.

How do I blur the grass without blurring the bird? Do I need to use the magnetic lasso tool cut the bird out, and do it like that?

Yes, that's one way. I say one way because there's a 100 ways to do it. The MagLasso is probably the easiest - though you might want to try Select... Color Range on the green, then Alt-Lasso inside the bird. (Alt with any selection tool subtracts an area from a selection.)

No matter how you select the grass... Feather by .5 - 1.5 pixels, Ctrl-H to hide the marquee so you can see the edges better, then modify the selected area. With the marquee hidden you'll be able to easily see if you're going too far because you'll start getting halos where they shouldn't exist.

[rick barclay]

Were you up in a tree when you shot that? Nice angle.