Male Downy Woodpecker

[Duane Noblick]

Another attempt with this cooperative bird. This male was photographed in my backyard bird garden. I replace the perch once a month.

http://www.pbase.com/duane_va/image/119513020/original.jpg


50D, 500mm f/4L, AV mode,, 1/400", f/14, ISO 320, spot metering, tripod

[arash_hazeghi]

Looking good here, like the detail, eye is nice and bright. IMO the tree trunk is too large and a bit distracting, I would crop off 2/3 of the tree in the left. The red BG looks oversaturated drawing attention away from the bird, I would desat and tone it down. TFS

[Todd Frost]

I like crop as presented. Agree on bg saturation and darkening, as is it competes for attention.
Todd

[Joe Senzatimore]

I too feel the perch is a bit large and the BG too bright. That said , I love the detail you captured here. This is worth fixing.

[Duane Noblick]

Thanks for the critiques...the BG was already desaturated in my RAW conversion. I feel if I do too much more it will look flat or un-natural. The crop is staying as is...thanks for your input.

[Brian Barcelos]

Love the diagonal comp and I like the perch as that is where you would find these guys. I agree that the BG is a bit too much for this little fellow. Congrats

[Kiran Poonacha]

wish the BG was more uniform, loved the light and compo, nice details too.. congrats..

[Wil Hershberger]

A wonderful fall shot. I too might crop off some of the left of frame to make the tree less intrusive. Magazine editors would love the colors of the background :)