Theme: King of the Backyard Birds

To me, anyway! I used Moku Hanga and Aquarella blended with the base image and added 2 textures, masked off the bird.

I'm not usually a fan of intense colors, but they sure work in this image. The processing you used -- including the textures for the background -- give this a nice look. That eye is just riveting.

Such beautiful birds, like the effect and composition...I may have left a bit more area on the right so bird isn't so centered. Nice work

Thanks Dennis and Paul. I had to crop it like that to cut out limbs on the right. Nothing of interest up there but more limbs. I cloned out one and part of one on the left and there might have been part of one on the right. I don't think it's too centered. :w3

I can see this from both viewpoints in terms of being centered. The visual mass of the bird is certainly left of center. However, that eye demands attention, and it's pretty much centered horizontally. I decided to play around with the image and immediately discounted the notion of adding canvas to the right. The branch made that too daunting a task. Instead, I cropped a little bit off the left (after moving just the background to the right so none of it was lost). To do that, I used Content Aware fill to give a layer with only the background on it, and that allowed me to add some more canvas to the top. That moved the bird toward the bottom, of course, but -- more importantly -- the branch no longer exited at the corner. I'm not sure any of these changes are all that important, but it does give an alternate composition.

Judy, this is wonderful. I'm a huge fan of certain types of watercolor treatments, and the background on this one nails it for me. The colors are rich and work well together. I rather like how Dennis' rendition raises the viewer perspective so that it doesn't feel like we're looking up at it quite so much. Only a minor niggle is the whitish area on the branch near the bill, it's a tad distracting and doesn't flow with the rest of the branch. I might try to burn it down to the values near the tail and feet so that it still has contrast but isn't as harsh. Nicely done!

Lovely effect! I have to try those programs. It made the perch look very interesting and I love the subtle framing effect of the BG.

Thanks for all the comments! Dennis, I like the top of the one you modified but the bottom seems to have lost some of the framing effect of the texture I used. Randall, I can work on the light area on the branch.

Judy, I love these birds and unfortunately they are becoming increasingly scarce in Florida. I like the filters and the pose.:S3:

Thanks Cheryl! I'm sorry to hear that they are more scarce in FL. I know many of my birder acquaintances in MS haven't ever had the opportunity to photograph one and don't see them often. A bird photographer in NC said back when I was photographing them that he'd never seen one there.

You did a lovely job masking off the bird. The bg causes the bird to stand out, but still look natural. I like how you processed the bird, making it stunning. I like Dennis' crop a bit more. I agree about the white area on the branch. Lovely work.

So far my Favorite for the theme, bar none.... EXCELLENT

Congratulations, Judy. Well deserved win for this colorful image.