Black Capped Chickadee

[Gary Esman]

Taken last fall. I am always curious as to what to do with the leaves that are cut in half on the edges. Cropped from horizontal. 7D, 700mm, 1/500, f/5.6, iso:five hundred

Thanks for looking, Gary.

[Randy Stout]

Gary:

Excellent exposure, seed, colors.


The wing looks slightly oversharpened as I am seeing some jaggies along the white line.

I don't think there is any perfect solution to the leaves issue when cut at frame edge. I might clone one or two out if they are isolated, but when you get a cluster, I usually don't.

The background is bright enough that it distracts from the bird a bit for me. You might consider doing a luminosity layer using the multiply blend mode to tone down the brightest areas in the background selectively. I did it and liked the result.

Cheers

Randy

[Karl Egressy]

Nice catching one in a natural environment eating their food. Background could go a little less exposed, and I would darken the mid range in the bird. ( Selective color, neutrals -8-12 just on the bird)

[Daniel Cadieux]

Love the way the chickadee is gripping the stem. The seed in the bill is a nice touch too. Leaves are often OK if cut solidly like most of them are here...it's mostly the small ones barely peeking in that are troublesome. Here the long one at bottom left would have needed to be a bit thicker IMO, but not too bad still. Randy's given some good advice for other aspects of the image. Head seems a bit soft as posted to my eyes.

[Arthur Morris]

Hey Gary, I love, love, love this one. So soft looking with sweet surroundings. My favorite part is the absolutely dead perfect head angle and the seed in the bill. And so, so sharp. The leaf behind the bird is the one that got me.... For the repost I cropped a bit from the left and then cloned away the small bit of leaf that was left.

[Gary Esman]

Thank you for your suggestions I appreciate your time. Artie, thank you for the re-post, it cleaned it up nicely and looks great.

Gary.