Chipping Sparrow

[Wendy Kates]

I captured this image last spring in my backyard, where I have a couple of perches set up near my feeder. I cropped it to about 20% of the original image, and sharpened it slightly. Feedback welcome.

Canon 7D
300 f/4 lens with 1.4 extender
f/5.6, 1/500s, ISO 200

[Wendy Kates]

I dodged the eye a little, a reposted. Does the upper part of the background look too streaky? I used content-aware to try to even it out but I may have overdone it.

[Diane Miller]

Nice picture for 20% of the full frame! You'll get better resolution of details if you can get closer or use a longer lens so you don't have to crop. Birds attracted to feeders will quickly learn to tolerate you sitting in wait. I keep the camera on a tripod, which I sit behind, so I don't disturb them by raising it to my eye when a good bird lands in the right spot.

The BG would be less attention-grabbing if it was desaturated a little. You can tweak the hue at the same time, which is often helpful to go a little more harmonious with the color.

Content-aware fill tried to fill in detail even where the isn't any, and frequently requires cloning to smooth it out.

[Warren Spreng]

Very nice, I'm only looking on my phone but it looks like you have some nice details. One of my favorite sparrows.

[Hazel Grant]

I think Diane covered it all. My monitor does not show a great deal of difference in background between them. Very sharp for the crop. well done. I like the original eye. The redo seems just a tad too bright to me.