The sun came out and the little critters are starting to come out of their holes. This is the first decent shot with my reversing ring. I can't remember the exact aperture, but it was between 5.6 and 11. He was sitting on a silver ladder in the bright sun, so everything around him pretty much blew out on its own. I figured the original was a loss, but kept it anyway.
Lightroom Crop and rotate
Urban Style preset (this also added the vignette)
Reduced exposure
Photoshop Cleaned up a weird halo coming out of Lightroom with clone tool
Dodged under him to brighten up the middle
Sharpened some bits with the sharpening tool
Adjusted saturation
Adjusted levels a little
Gradient tool from lower right to balance the top vignette
Masked out his head and the tips of his legs
Topaz Denoise on everything else
Touched up some sharpening of his little crown spikes and his mouth
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When I first saw this in competition, I exclaimed, "Ohhhhhh!" and gave you a high vote.
When I was lucky enough to get this in the critique queue, it got another "Ohhhhhhh!" and here I am, relatively speechless. About all I can do is sit here and admire this little beastie and appreciate what a good job you did in bringing out the critter details. I am especially glad that you catalogued your steps so others can learn from your example.
So, with that, I guess it's time to go on to the next person in line after saying "Thanks" for this fine image. It's a keeper.
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