Wheatear

[Jonathan Michael Ashton]

I took this shot close by to where I live, it has just arrived for the breeding season, I think it is not quite up to full breeding plumage colouration yet.
I would appreciate any comments regards composition and processing. I have tried to make the colours pop a little by using selective colour and increasing the black channel by 5%. It is a cropped image and after resizing the image to 800 pixels I applied smart sharpening Amount 120% Radius 0.3
Canon 20D
Canon 500mm f4 L IS plus 1.4 TC Mk 1
+ 2/3 stop Pattern metering ( I think plus 1/3 may have been better)
ISO 200
1/400 sec @ f5.6

Thanks for looking
Jon

[Juan Aragonés]

Nice image here. I would suggest to increase the saturation of the BG but is just my taste. I agree with your choice about the sharpening parameters. Love the out of focus BG. Well done and thanks for sharing

[Gus Cobos]

Very nice composition Jonathan, love the background and the details on Mr. bird. Must agree with Juan in reference to the saturation factor; for my taste, increase just a wee bit...outside of that you are good to go...:D

[Jim Poor]

Really nice as is. With a basically gray scale bird an increase in the BG saturation might make him pop even more, or it just might overwhelm the subject. I'd have to see it to decide.

[Fabs Forns]

I like as presented except that I'd like a bit more space at the bottom. Nice bird!

[Ian Colley]

I also like this as presented the OOF back ground really draws the eye to the bird and compliments the colours of the bird. I like the composition and for the OOF grass just behind the bird adds a little more interest to the image. Well done.