Date: 5-06-2011; Rexburg, Idaho; F-Stop: 5.7; Shutter Speed: 1/2700; Focal Length: 55.0mm; Model: Canon EOS REBEL T1i

For this photo I purposely focused on a lot of light before I captured the shot, so it would show up darker and I could edit it in Photoshop.  I used a large aperture to put direct focus on the parrot and blur the background.  I brought this photo into Photoshop and used an adjustment layer (non destructive editing).  I used the Levels Tool and lightened the whole picture, added contrasts and lightened the midtones.  I really wanted the parrot to pop, so I decided to use the “free” mask to bring back the dark in the background.  I lowered to opacity so I would not make it as dark as the original was, but enough that parrot would pop.