Attack Pelican pp critique please

I was working on some dodging and burning to bring out the pelican a bit more. This is my first time really trying this. I hope it doesn't look too overdone. Does the pic look better? Any suggestions? Thanks
1. Unedited

It definitely looks better w/ the dodging and burning. It's a shame the beak was cut off.

iN5P1R3 wrote in post #6995356
It's a shame the beak was cut off.

x2

It ruins the photo.

I think the sky & water in the original is better & your work on the pelican & woodwork is better in the second one.

Maybe try again leaving the sky alone & only apply about 1/2 as much correction to the water - see how that looks.

Keep at it - it's a lot of fun & satisfaction.......tw

Thanks for the comments. here's another shot with another try.
1. unedited

Very good job - just right & not over the top....keep it going.

Once again nice job. You managed to enhance the pelican's color w/o overdoing it. The horizon is a bit crooked though

Nice work but it appears that you've played outside the lines in several places on the first image and one spot on the second. Staying inside the subject with the burn tool is tough at times.

yeah, trying to dodge and burn feathers are not that easy. any tips?

I use an set of actions that create a mask that allows you to selectively reduce the effect by painting it with a brush.

Titus213 wrote in post #6998569
Nice work but it appears that you've played outside the lines in several places on the first image and one spot on the second. Staying inside the subject with the burn tool is tough at times.

You have good eyes. It is hard to find in #2.

Thinkt it's well edited, However. I would darken the background a bit, Enhance the feathers further. And I see a little halo effect on the beak and back of the neck. Do you use a 50% fill layer with soft light as blending mode and dodge and burn on that or do you use PS CS4 with tone protection doing it on a copy of the original image?