While cleaning up photo files on my laptop, I ran across this one from early spring. I had a good number of Grosbeaks migrate through this spring.
Any
Is this a composite: No
Canon 60D
Canon 70-300mm IS USM @ 240mm
f/5.6
1/250 sec.
ISO 1600
Hand Held
Processed in ACR and PSE 2020 for exposure and cropping. Topaz De-noise applied.
I like this view. Good plumage detail and color. Very similar to the black headed grosbeak which we get in our area. I might consider running another round of noise reduction on the background.
Very good, Terry. I like the pose. It is interesting how the female looks so much like our Blackheaded while the males are so different.
You might desaturate and lower the exposure a bit on those brilliant greens on the sides-they feel a bit overpowering to me.
Hi Terry, nice focus on the head and I like the profile look. A very pretty bird. Agree with Dennis on toning down the greens some especially on the left.
Very nice!! Agreement on the noise reduction and the greens. There is a tiny intrusion in the UL easily cloned out or cropped.
Thanks @David_Schoen @Dennis_Plank @Allen_Sparks @Diane_Miller. I backed off the greens as suggested and removed the intrusion in the UL as noted by Diane. Also ran it through a light update in De-noise.
The rework looks really nice even though I don’t think you needed to take the greens down that much. She looks intent and busy somehow. Great details and I like the slightly up from under perspective. There were some of these guys around in the spring, but I haven’t seen or heard them in a while.
Thanks, Kris. PS was working so well at muting the greens I didn’t know when to stop! 
I get to enjoy the Rose-breasteds for a couple weeks in the spring before they move on. They don’t nest in Oklahoma.
I really like the repost, Terry. I don’t think you went too far on the greens. They still convey the same intense feel without overpowering the bird. Nice work.
Interesting – I would have gone even further with the greens. I had a try, and lowered saturation on both greens and yellows (as green usually has a lot of yellow in it) and moved the Hues a bit warmer, to complement the warmth of the bird and tree, I then masked the adjustment layer off the bird. (I can’t be sure without layering the two versions and clicking the top one on/off, but it looks like the bird has lost a bit of color in the second version.)
It’s not very obvious in the original but when I began altering colors I saw a lot of color and tonal artifacts in the original. I wouldn’t expect them of the 60D so wonder about processing. My first question would be, are you opening images in PS as 16 bits? That is vital to smooth color and tonal transitions, as is doing as much as you can in ACR, where you have even more tonal overhead. Even though images are reduced to 8 bits for a JPEG, the tonal smoothness achieved in the master file is not discarded.
