What technical feedback would you like if any?
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
Any pertinent technical details:
Nikon D7100, 1/1000, ISO 2000, 650mm
Nice pose and detail here. The BG branches are prretty distracting; I’d suggest cloning/healing/content-awaring 
them away.
Sandy
good point, I’ll work on it tonight
critique reluctantly requested on the redo.
It should be better but then so should I. I think I am at a point where the more I mess with it the bigger the mess. becomes.
I’m going to stay with your original, Greg. Somehow losing the branches makes the OOF highlights more prominent. For my eye and the “harmony” of the scene, the great pose just “goes with” the sweep of the surrounding branches and is enhanced by them. Yeah, it’s “busier” with the branches, but in this case I think that’s a good thing.
Greg, Nice improvement, (IMO). Now, the bird is the focus with no big detractions.
The only further things I’d suggest are these:
- easily remove the 3 partial circles of blue on right edge , to further focus on the bird
- tone the whole blue channel down a bit.
Nice work!
Sandy
Looking at both now I think removal of the branches in front of the bird would have been adequate. However I had to go with Sandy’s initial suggestion to get to that opinion.
Hank, Much appreciated and this is a very woodsy bird so the original shows more of a natural environment. However I think if I had seen the 2nd one first I would be sold on it!
Sandy. Many thanks for the suggestion both before and after. I think either would benefit from removal of the partial blues.
Besides , this exercise showed me I need a lot more knowledge and practice on PP.