great tit

[Jeroen Wijnands]

Crop, slight exposure and color correction.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5084/5343437821_20280f7817_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/j_wijnands/5343437821/)
great tit (http://www.flickr.com/photos/j_wijnands/5343437821/) by j_wijnands (http://www.flickr.com/people/j_wijnands/), on Flickr
exif:
Camera Nikon D300
Exposure 0.002 sec (1/640)
Aperture f/9.0
Focal Length 500 mm
ISO Speed 400

I'm quite satisfied with this shot but I'm also eager to improve.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Jeroen a couple of things spring to mind: I think the crop could be readjusted to pu the bird more on the intersection of thirds. If it were mine I would reduce the highlights a little especially on the cheek and raise ethe shadows a little under the chin. Having done this you may lose a little contrast which I would restore using either linear curve of selective colour.. I would also lower the higlights on the twig he is perched on. Hope this helps a little?

[Jeroen Wijnands]

Jeroen a couple of things spring to mind: I think the crop could be readjusted to pu the bird more on the intersection of thirds. If it were mine I would reduce the highlights a little especially on the cheek and raise ethe shadows a little under the chin. Having done this you may lose a little contrast which I would restore using either linear curve of selective colour.. I would also lower the higlights on the twig he is perched on. Hope this helps a little?

It does, thank you for that. I kept the raw so I'm going to try this.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Good exposure for the high light you had. Some fill-flash would have helped with the shaded belly area, but in post you could do some selective dodging there and see if that improves that area. I do wish everything was so vertically straight though. You could crop it from the right as vertical pano (to about the tip of the OOF twig) and lose the extra twigs while at it. Just an option to try out:)