I liked the shot of the Flicker, but the sky background was a dull, foggy white and there were a number of distracting branches. I changed the background and did a lot of “pruning”. Given the changes, I didn’t think it was appropriate for avian, but was more in the photo art category.
Did I miss some cloning errors or artifacts?
Is the background okay for the bird?
Allen:
Thanks for being clear about how this image was created and thanks for posting it here and not in the Avian Critique.
The background feels a bit odd for a bird. I’m not quite sure where I’d find a background like that in nature that is quite that smooth. It does make the bird stand out however.
When I view the larger version, it is pretty clear that the background was replaced. Looking at the head in particular, all of the edges are very hard where the head meets the background. It has a cut and past look to it. Replacing a background with a highly textured subject like a bird is a tough task to make it look completely natural.
Allen,
Like Keith, I feel the background to be a bit distracting. I would change the hue to something green, reduce the brightness, and perhaps add a vignette or a gradient to help highlight the bird and push the background visually backwards. A very weak blur or feather tool around the edge of the bird would soften things up a bit. If I had a .psd file with all layers I could show you, but downloading a .jpg doesn’t afford the possibility.
