Tufted Titmouse

300mm, 1/350 @ f/5.6 ISO 500
Having owned my Nikon 300 f/4 for close to a year, I FINALLY set up my Nikon D300S with the 300 to poke just outside my sliding glass door (hidden mostly by curtains) that looks out onto my rear porch where the feeder is. Caught this 'lil guy and thought I had done a decent enough job (in terms of exposure, sharpness and composition) to warrant a post and critique.
Of note: a portion of my bird feeder was originally in this photo, in the upper right hand corner. I Photoshopped it out (Elements 8), but as you can see by the slightly messy bokeh, I need improvement on removing distracting elements from a photo via PP.
Sorry the bird is so common - but the pose smacks of attitude and some level of moxy, don't you think?
:-)
Thanks!
Brian

Brian, this little bird looks great! No need to apologize for it being so common...I'd rather photograph cooperative common beauties like this than chase more uncommon but difficult to properly photograph (e.g. approach) ones. Exposure looks good, as does sharpness (as posted). Although clean-looking and nicely coloured the perch could be better (not man-made)...always fun to pick out nice natural branches and place them close to feeders for the birds to land on for nicer photographs. Tight on the crop, and I do wish the body was better lit - at least the face is nicely splashed by the light, and I like the ruffled chest feathers.

Brian:

Sharp, well exposed, perky pose of a nice titmouse with crown fully erect.

The image needs a bit of CW rotation to level it out. If you have any more canvas on top, I would add back in a bit so his crown isn't so close to the top.
I think with a little bit more smoothing the cloning job would be fine.

The 300mm f/4 Nikon is a fine lens if you can get close enough to the birds.

Cheers

Randy

PS: Daniel and I were typing at the same time,sorry for the duplications!

As you can see, I did a fair amt. of work on this one.

Thanks for showing us the original. You did a GREAT job on the bird itself! Perch removal was good too, just a bit of finishing touch needed but you're on the right track there. I see you have plenty of room for a better, looser comp.

Hi Randy/Daniel!!!! Wow, that was quick! Thanks so much for the excellent feedback - I agree, I bit more "breathing room" at the top would improve things, as would leveling out the photo. I'm going to grab some backyard branches and just start pocking them in the feeder so they stick out and provide for a more natural looking perch.
You folks rock!!!!
:-)
Brian

Agree with the above comments. Might run a round of NR just on the background. You did a good job in bring out details on the white (chest area) too.

Good suggestions all - I cleaned up the bokeh via a bit more NR (Lightroom 3 is wonderful, esp. if you shoot RAW like I do) and straightened out the horizon, so to speak. Couldn't do much about the headroom unless I wanted to start all over again. Still, I think it's a tad improved.
Thanks again!
Brian