Tree swallow

[Kevin Haw]

My first post

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7431/14052994421_0b0d9ce850_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/npPgDg)

[David Kenny]

Very nice first post. The bird looks nice and sharp. The branch going through the birds back is a big distraction though (which you cant always control) . I found that posting your cameras settings and focal length can really help others critique your work. Keep up the good work!

-Dave

[Diane Miller]

Hi Kevin, and welcome to BPN! What a great first post! Tree swallows are difficult - the iridescence is difficult to present well and you did it very nicely here. The exposure and tonalities look great.

If the image was cropped from the bottom, it would be interesting to see a little more included there, if there wasn't a distracting element there.

It helps with critique and understanding if you give the shooting specs and processing steps.

Go over to Introductions and tell us a little about yourself!

Look forward to your future posts, and comments on others' images.

[WillieHall]

Hi Kevin, I have only been here 4 months and have learned a ton! Nice focus and pose. You might try carefully cloning out the branch above and behind to improve a remarkable photo. I have learned to do this with prompting from folks here and had good results.

[WillieHall]

Here is a quick clone job I did, yours could be better on the bigger file of the original.....just to give you the idea

[Diane Miller]

Willie, a very impressive job here! Now you could remove the OOF areas below the branch, prune the end of the stub in the LL corner, and add canvas at the bottom filled with blue sky. (Of course there will be varying opinions on how much retouching different people will do.)

I don't see any imperfections in the cloning but I always check my work in plain areas using the method I mention in the PDF tutorial on extending canvas, in the stickies at the top of this forum, at the bottom of pg 3. I also wrote about it here:

http://www.adorama.com/alc/0008041/article/Invisible-Touch

[WillieHall]

Nice tuturial, Diane, very useful info there. It always is a personal matter about how much to change a photo, hope you did not mind me playing a little with your good photo, Kevin.