House Sparrow

[Stuart Edwards]

This was shot in my back yard last May when i had just moved in. I tried cloning out the bright spots but I only made a mess of it.
1DsIII 400 f5.6L , 1/800 , iso 800 +2/3 EC.
On a tripod shot from a ground blind.
I recently purchased Digital Basics , Arties Post processing Guide , and DPP 4 Guide . I have been going back and re-editing some photos and i am quite pleased with the results .
Thanks Artie and Arash for the great easy to understand guides. I obviously still have a lot to learn but these guides are a great help .

[Jonathan Ashton]

I suspect the contrast is just a tad high on the sparrow. (Maybe set contrast in DPP to -1 if using the Standard picture setting) A very well detailed image I did wonder if slightly over-sharpened but perhaps not.
From a compositional point of view I would suggest lowering the brightness of the background*, find a more delicate perch say with leaves or lichen or berries and ideally get the shot without the seed.
* easy way to do this is to make two exposures one for the subject and one for the background then layer and mask to combine the two exposures.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Handsome fella despite it being in non-breeding plumage. Nice and sharp. Cloning can be tricky. In a situation like this you will want to use a low opacity (30% or so) and clone lightly with a largish brush. I agree with Jon: since this is likely a setup, a better perch would improve the image by lots. It's fun colleting branches and twigs while out on walks in the woods for this purpose!