PP Strategy for White Birds

[martycon]

I am starting PP on some Sulfur Crested Cockatoo portraits. The images are about half a stop under exposed. I am using raw .dng files, and using the Adobe Raw facility which is available within my PS Elements 11. In order to get good feather definition, I am increasing the positive value of sliders for White & Shadow, while increasing the negative value of the sliders for Highlight & Black. I appreciate that there will be no fixed formula, but am I headed in the right direction, or totally lost in the bush?

[J.davis]

Same bird in full sun, I adjusted the entire picture to what I wanted and then used the 'adjustment brush' set to highlights,
painted the bird, and reduced it nearly all the way, while increasing clarity a bit.

[martycon]

Thanks John, hoped you would notice my query. Did not mention, my bird is in full shadow, but that is beside the point. I have not explored this adjustment brush before, so will experiment with this tool.
regards , marty.

[J.davis]

This is a before and after shot that you probably are after.
In late afternoon shadow and underexposed as well.
LR CC
I even got the splattering juice of the seed he was eating.

20151227-JOD_7681-2.jpg


20151227-JOD_7681-3.jpg

[Kerro]

John, I would love to know how you PP'd your photo. It's amazing the difference. I have lots of Pelicans, thus lots of white feathers. Any help on PP'ing these white bird shots would be greatly appreciated.

cheers

[J.davis]

Just bought up the exposure and started from there. I work with LR and go down the LH settings from top down.
No great secrets, but camera is set to underexpose so I keep my detail.