Cedar Waxwing on apple blossom

[gail bisson]

I took this from the comfort of home, shooting through my daughter's upstairs bedroom window.
This apple tree has been a bonanza for me these past 2 days. Talk about easy birding!
Canon 1 DX3 600mm v.3 and 1.4 extender
ISO 1600 F 4.5 SS 1/1250
Crop to full vertical.
Nothing added or cloned. I could clone out the OOF branch on RHS but will see what you guys think,
Gail

[dankearl]

Nice setup you have....
Classic waxwing, nice that you got all sharp.
I would lighten the tiny catchlight even more.
Their eyes are very black, a little more life added for me.

[Brian Sump]

Gail, superb. I love it!

Seems like maybe a little bkg smudge to the right of subject? Bit of a hard color transition line.

[Colin Driscoll]

Everything to like here! Soft light, head turn, mouthful and detail.
Agree on toning down that edge in the right BG.

[Randy Stout]

Gail:

A lovely capture of a lovely bird. Like the pose, mouthful, perch. The oof branch is not an issue for me because of its softness and location. Agree about softening the background line.

Did you shoot through the glass?

Cheers

Randy

[gail bisson]

Hi Randy,
It was through an open window!
I am looking for advice from all re: best way to soften the edge without using the cloning tool?
I tried the smudge and then the blur tool but it did not work. The noise reduction helped and I reduced the contrast in that area and the OP shows the results from these PS modifications.
Any help greatly appreciated,
Gail


Gail:

A lovely capture of a lovely bird. Like the pose, mouthful, perch. The oof branch is not an issue for me because of its softness and location. Agree about softening the background line.

Did you shoot through the glass?

Cheers

Randy

[dankearl]

Is using the healing brush tool not something you like to
do on your files?
This is just quick, you can make it better. Easy.
gail.jpg (http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=186887&stc=1&d=1592060086)

[Brian Sump]

Like Dan, healing brush can be good. Maybe reduce opacity and flow some. I also made a custom clone brush, soft with 52% opacity and reduced flow. It works fantastically on smooth bkg like this

[David Roach]

Awesome details on one of my favorites. TFS

[John Mack]

Looks solid to me. I like the vertical framing with that apple blossom at the bottom. Nice background and pose as well.

[gail bisson]

Hi Dan,
I use the healing brush all the time but I can't use it because I plan on submitting this to our local photo club contest so no cloning allowed!
That is why I was fooling around with smudge tool and other non-cloning tools.

Gail
QUOTE=dankearl;1238689]Is using the healing brush tool not something you like to
do on your files?
This is just quick, you can make it better. Easy.
gail.jpg (http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=186887&stc=1&d=1592060086)[/QUOTE]

[gail bisson]

Thanks Brian. I agree with the opacity brush and I use something bery similar to yours. But I want to submit this to a local photoclub contest so no cloning allowed!

Gail
Like Dan, healing brush can be good. Maybe reduce opacity and flow some. I also made a custom clone brush, soft with 52% opacity and reduced flow. It works fantastically on smooth bkg like this

[Bill Dix]

A beauty of a shot, Gail. I love the pose, perch, and especially the background color. The plumage on these birds is so soft that it's tough to get much detail. You captured it perfectly. The Paintbrush tool, dipped into the color just to the left of the smudge, works nicely if used at very low opacity painting over a few times as needed. But that might also be outside of the contest rules. The Burn/midtones at low opacity also works but less well. I would love to see a slightly more vertical format, taking maybe 1 cm off the right side and adding 1.5 cm at the bottom. That's a very subjective thing.

[gail bisson]

Thanks to Randy for his suggestion. I used the Gaussian blur tool at 19. I think it works well. Leaves the OOF branch but softens the edges. Thanks Randy!

[Brian Sump]

Well done Gail, this should get serious merit in the comp!