What technical feedback would you like if any? I pulled up just enough from the shadows to provide depth to the blackbird’s body. How does it look?
What artistic feedback would you like if any? I only cloned out a very bright OOF cattail stalk right below the bird, which drew the eyes away from the bird. I left the others for you to evaluate. Would you remove some or all of them, or leave the image as is?
Pertinent technical details or techniques: D500 600mm f4 + 1.4 TC (1/1000 sec at f6.3, Iso 450, auto ISO on, fill flash-2ev. Slight crop for comp, Levels, rubber stamp tool, Topaz DeNoise AI. Male redwing blackbirds put an extraordinary amount of effort in setting up their nesting territories. This guy is no exception. Thank you for viewing…Jim
(If backgrounds have been removed, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
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jamesezablotny
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You caught a very nice pose and I like how it’s perched on the cattail. Detail looks good. I like how it’s framed between the stalk it is on and the one to the right, and I feel it conveys the environment it is in. I’d be tempted to clone out the thick stalk on the left and possible the smaller one as well and I might even clone out the oof stalk on the right. I’ve given a lot of thought lately to Keith Bauer’s recent article about including more of the bird’s environment, so I guess my thinking here is that those three stalks probably don’t convey more of the environment and tends to draw the eye away from the main subject-if that makes any sense.
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Jim, I would be thrilled if this was my shot. I was out in a NWR last week and just hoping one of these red wings would land on a cattail, but they never did. If it was mine, I think I might try just dimming the stalks down, maybe even a bit of blurring, but leave them as part of the environment. It looks much brighter on the thick left stalk near the bird’s tail feathers, which appears that some darkening was done, but not up all the way to the bird’s feathers. Might not be that, but to me that looks unnatural, and would try to darken that part at least. The position of the bird on a cattail, and beak open is just a really nice shot. 
PS I forgot to mention that the bird’s feathers where you brought the shadows down looks normal to me, in answer to your question.
Really excellent detail and quality of light on the plumage. It stands out quite well and one can easily see the difference between your image at iso-450 and mine at iso 8000. I do see a bit of a bluish tinge in the highlights of the black plumage. This is one of the things that makes this bird so difficult to photograph in sunny conditions. With respect to cloning, the only thing here that is a little bit of a distraction is the out of focus stock on the far left below the tail. If that were removed, you might also wish to remove the small one next to it for a standpoint of balance.
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Excellent shot of the Red-winged Blackbird display, Jim. The reds are spot on, which can be difficult to achieve. It might take a little work, but that one out of focus stem that intersects the tail really draws my eye.
