Shooter41 Loc: Wichita, KS

Dear profbowman... I appreciate your taking the time to ask such a revealing and important underlying question, "Why do I want to make a Downy woodpecker into something it isn't?" I am hoping that you will reciprocate by trying to think about my important answer. I choose to lighten the Downy woodpecker's rust colored breast for the same reason that women wear make up on their faces; men wear clothing when they go out in public; both men and women shower and wear deodorant before going out on a date and photographers edit their photographs. Now I have a question for you. What could possibly make anyone want to ask such a psychologizing and judgmental question?

Shooter41 Loc: Wichita, KS

Dear TerryLA...Thank you for your heads up on Matt Kloskowski tutorials on U-Tube and Photoshop Training Channel. Over the years I learned that other photographers that share their knowledge freely and never make negative hurtful remarks about other's work are often the best persons as well as photographers. Stay well my friends.

AviRoad Loc: Westchester County, NY

You tell'em

Shooter41 Loc: Wichita, KS

Dear AviRoad...Thank you for your support and humor. Please stay warm, safe and continue sharing your images with your friends on UHH!

Uuglypher Loc: South Dakota (East River)

“How Does One Whiten An Asymmetrical Area of an Image and not the Entire Image?”

...a simple question demanding a simple expression of the simple historical perspective:

Analog? Dodge!
Digital? Burn!

I’m sure more than a few here thought first of this! 😉

Shooter41 Loc: Wichita, KS

Dear Uuglypher...
You are absolutely correct. Thank you for your excellent input. That was my first idea for a solution. The only problem was when I selected the area and "dodged" it to lighten it, it changed the entire area I had selected colors and turned the bird into having a splotch of multiple colors like a paint pony. (Somehow at the high ISO I had to shoot at, I had introduced not only "noise", but also color aberrations.)
I was hesitant to include all of that information in my post because I was already too verbose. What you said would be true if I were shooting at a decebt 100-200 ISO. But when I have to shoot at 2,500 ISO because the birds are in a shadow under a bottom opening feeder, where I can't use a flash it adds yet another problem.