Blue-capped Rock Thrush.

[Satish Ranadive]

Taken in Feb, 2012. I have provided perch for Paradise Flycatcher near water; suddenly from nowhere this bird appeared and sat on perch.
Unfortunately bird sat on lower very small portion of branch. Instead of removing branch behind the bird, I have removed some lower portion.
Black spots in the BG are cloned. Cropped more than 50 percent, sharpened and NR applied to BG.
Please let me know your opinion about hanging branch composition.

Canon: 550D, 100-400.
F: 5.6, 1/500, ISO: 200.
Spot metering, White balance: Auto. Exposure bias: +0.3 stop. HH.

Thanks for viewing and appreciation. C & C are much appreciated.
Kind Regards.

[Sachin Saraf]

Satish, Nice HA, sharpness and exposure. IQ looks suffered from cropping...and looks like taken in harsh light but you handled it very well.

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Excellent pose, lovely light, exposure and sharpness. I like the comp too. Since this was a setup, I'd go with a nicer perch, if at all possible.
Was some cleanup done? I feel like I'm seeing smudges/artifacts below the bird and beside the perch.

Sinhagadh valley?

[Daniel Cadieux]

I like the bird and colours, and there is an interesting criss-cross between the perch and subject. Not the prettiest perch though, and I see some residual post-processing artefacts that need cleaning up. Beautiful background tones.

[Aidan Briggs]

Agree with the others on the slight smudging. Great handling of the bright light. While the perch isn't great, it does match well with the BG.

[PhilCook]

Nice posture on the bird, the perch is OK with me, a bit different which I like. Agree about the smudging and a slight shame it was a big crop and has lost a little image quality as such

[gail bisson]

A pretty little bird.
Agree the IQ is not that great -especially noticeable on the darker feathers.
Agree with others re: BG and perch.
I would definitely go back to the same area and try a prettier perch and some kind of blind to get closer,
Gail

[David Salem]

Beautiful bird and pose. Great catch light. A bit grainy though. Nice BG color. Some artifacts left behind. Good job overall .

Dave

[Amol Khedgikar]

Satish,

welcome surprise waiting for the PFC huh? I think the perch is natural and from the same habitat (Sinhagad Valley, I am guessing here). So although its not very pretty I think its perfect in that habitat. Some areas /edges of the perch and the BG need refined clone work.
Light under the canopy could be tricky so I think you did well there. I would also run another round of NR but not sure how much it would help as this is already a big crop. (I actually think you could loosen the crop a little, IMO)

Nice to see the bird after long. I like the pose you got here.