JJphoto,


In your GBH shot the background looked a little noisy or grainy to me. You could smooth that out with the noise reduction filter and your subject will look better because of it. Here is how I perform that function after all final editing and sharpening :


1. Layer ---- Duplicate Layer ---- opens a window to duplicate the current layer, hit OK


2. The duplicate layer will be visible now and should be highlighted as well over to the right side of the screen in the layers window


3. Filter ---- Noise ---- Reduce Noise ---- set strength to maximum and preserve detail, sharpening to minimum ---- OK


4. Layer ---- Create Layer Mask ---- Reveal all


5. Paint brush tool (set to 100% opacity and look at the two little squares at the bottom of the tool bar :black is on top) ---- adjust the brush size as needed with bracket keys and paint over the bird only. Be very careful on the edges not to spill pver much. This will reveal the layer underneath so only the BG will be seen to have NR.


6. Layer --- flatten image ---- voila!


Joel