The photographer is looking for thoughtful feedback on the image as a whole, especially around the areas noted below.
Feedback Focus: Artistic + Technical
About This Image
This was from one of my late April trips out to Magee Marsh and I tried some new processing techniques. The thrush was strongly back-lit and the BG was overly bright. I never used the masking features in Lightroom, until now. I masked the subject and perch and gave it more exposure, clarity and dehaze. I then darkened and increased the blur of the BG with reduction in exposure and clarity. I also reduced any strong bokeh and was amazed at how the thrush looked against the BG!
Feedback Requested
The original was not great due to the lighting and the subtle details and color of the subject were being outcompeted by the bright BG. How do you like the implementation of the gradients in this rendition?
Processing software: Lightroom Classic v 15 Photoshop 2026
Major adjustments: Exposure, DeNoise, Crop for comp, Rubber stamp tool to remove OOF stem in front of perch
Blending/stacking: Masking with exposure and clarity adjustments
Other notes:
Another bird I hear more often than see. They hide so well and are small, too. Impressive portrait and I like the translucence in the legs especially. I wish there wasn’t such a heavy reflection in the eye, but what can you do? Excellent sharpness and background as usual. Soft light to die for.
Your processing made this a very fine image, Jim. Just for reference, moving the texture slider left can also help tame an ugly background. With the selection tools in LR these days, I’m spending a lot more time there and less in PS. Excellent work. I think we’d love to see where you started on this.
Jim: What a terrific final result. A beautiful bird on a really nice perch and your work on the BG turned out really well. I’m having a lot of fun working images with the new LR tools and being able to enhance the RAW material in a way that doesn’t alter the content of an image but makes what’s there better. for this one.>=))>
Wonderful portrait and capture. I can only echo what both Dennis and Bill had to say. Excellent work with the new tools. I too have found the masking in ACR(same as LR) to actually be fantastic!
I too would love to see what you started with - however, the end result is all that matters, and this one is fantastic.
I’ll also echo Kris’s comment on the cloudiness in the eye. Of course only a reflection of what is above, but maybe not to difficult to mask mitigate a little with contrast? Not a huge deal though.
Wonderful!! It’s amazing what we can do to change the lighting these days. I think darkening the eye a bit might work well, and I could see a bit of crop from the bottom. I love the BG!
Excellent look at the thrush, Jim. Your processing worked wonders-amazing what our cameras these days can capture and what the software can bring out. I like the composition and the perch adds interest. The background looks good with some complementary elements being present.
