greetings

[stuart wanuck]

nikon d 4 iso 400
m 1/1600 @ 6
500 mm
photo converted to oil portait

[Don Nelson]

Something funny going on with the background -- did you sharpen this also? on my monitors it shows as having a paint-stroke like appearance.
If it were mine, I'd do a little masking and then do a gaussian blur on the background, as well as to lighten the green/black just a bit.
A very interesting image -

Please use this as an example - I don't have your large-size raw to do the good masking job that this requires.....so its just to show an example of what I would try to do (note the non-blurred areas around some parts of the bird/stick needs to be corrected in the larger capture sized image before downsizing to the 1024 wide jpg here).... and you may want to do another slight round of sharpening on at least the heads -- your call.

[Don Nelson]

adding a bit of sharpening..

[WIlliam Maroldo]

Don; Stuart states it was "converted to oil portrait", not disclosing how. I would think OOTB would be more appropriate. regards~Bill

[Don Nelson]

Don; Stuart states it was "converted to oil portrait", not disclosing how. I would think OOTB would be more appropriate. regards~Bill

Ah - I see that now. Good point
Well that explains the crunchy look -- and I agree with move to OOTB

[Dennis Bishop]

I like the oil paint effect and think the depth of field gives an effective background. A tad more room on the right might be good, but it's very nice as is.

[Cheryl Slechta]

Hi, Stuart, I like the oil paint effect and it looks like a nice base image. I would remove the tall stick under the right wing and the stick closest to the right edge.

[Christopher Miller]

I like the subtle painting effect to this one. Nice moment you captured, though I wish both birds had been turned toward the camera more.

[Anita Bower]

I think the conversion to oil portrait works well here. I like the action of the bird coming in. Good suggestions about the branches. Nice work.

[Indranil Sircar]

Very nice composition, Stuart. It's always challenging with this setting... I think the oil portrait makes the bg nice. You captured a good action... I too wish for a slightly turned angle. TFS.

[Paul Lagasi]

I like the image and have always been a fan of Oil effects, good suggestion above, especially the removing of some of the branches. Love the mohawks on these two birds...very nice capture. Well done