This male, ruby-throated hummingbird was hovering near my nectar feeder, which was hanging in front of the lattice-work of my backyard wooden fence. So the background is less than perfect. Some of the bird's head feathers are disheveled, and the wings aren't in total focus either. But the rest of it is pretty sharp, and the colors are beautiful. I tried making a more uniform background by painting the entire background the beige color of the fence, but I ended up ruining the edges of the wings. (And, despite all of Diane's excellent advice, I hadn't used layers so I couldn't correct it. Not going to make that mistake again! The only way to salvage that image is to put it through Topaz Simplify, turn it into a painting, and post it in OOTB.) So, my question is: is the image of the bird good enough to spend the time trying to make the background more uniform? And what is the best way to make the background uniform? Thanks for any comments / critiques you have. By the way, I have since moved the feeder to a spot in front of some trees.
Canon 7D
300mm f/4
f/4, 1/1200s, ISO 400
Cropped to about 25% of original image, NR on background with Nik Dfine, Unsharp mask.


