EvKar, I'm the one who did the first Photoshop version that Linda used to work on to modify the background. My main point was that your original NEF file had MUCH more color than appeared in the version you posted. I used Adobe Camera Raw to bring out quite a bit of it. Frankly, I was surprised at how much color and contrast was available. I had very little time to work on it (about 10 minutes) Basically, I opened up the shadows, pulled down the highlights, tweaked the white balance, adjusted exposure slightly, added a bit of clarity, and boosted vibrance and saturation a little. I did not have time to play with the background, but there was quite a deep color quality there also. (If you download the picture you'll see what I mean.) I don't know the color of your chicks, so I may not have gotten it right in my hurried post-processing, but it definitely had data there to work with. And I think you are correct that this being a raw file meant that there was a greater dynamic range to work with in Photoshop than if it was a JPG file. I moved from darkroom dodging and burning and adjusting the enlarger timer and developer strength to doing post-processing in Photoshop and shooting with digital cameras. Honestly, the power and possibilities of digital processing are exciting, and you get better with practice. The internet has lots of free tutorial videos to help you along. Just keep trying!