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Greg, nice to see a bird from this part of the world (I'm in Australia). Yes, that stem behind the bird is distracting. One option is to play with the tone/brightness so it is less obvious (selectively on that element of the image) or to soften it a little. Otherwise, this looks very good to me. If anything, the contrast on the bird might be a little high: the white feathers under the eye are lacking detail and might benefit from a selective tonal adjustment and converse for the black band below this. Is there a hint of catchlight on the eye? If so, it might be worth lightening/reduce shadows on that a little to bring it out some more. Composition works for me and the environment around the bird is great.
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Glenn, thanks for the comments and suggestions. I'll look at what you suggest to see if I can get a better result. Realistically I need to work a lot more on my post-processing, part of the reason for joining the forum to get a focus on such techniques.
Despite living in the US I am actually Australian, been out of Oz about 20 years, so I enjoy seeing your posts on birds more familiar to me. I'll now be able to comment, at least if I have something useful to day!
Greg
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Nice shot Greg and good to see another 400/2.8 in use. I would remove the twig sticking out from the back and run some noise reduction on the background. If you don't have it Neat Image is terrific for noise reduction.
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Thanks Colin. I did recently get Neat Image, but need to adjust my workflow to use PS routinely rather than LR. I'll work on the image based on the critique.
Love the 400/2.8! I photograph wildlife in general, not just birds, and find the lens is almost always the one to use.
Greg
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Greg, removing the twigs has helped although I can see where you have done so under the bird: are you aware of the Healing Brush tool in photoshop? It's a good choice for situations like this. I can't see any changes to the lighting on the bird but still think this is will improve the image.
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Glenn, I haven't taken this into photoshop yet, only lightroom, which I don't think has the healing brush. I have some re-organisation to do on my workflow to bring photoshop into play, and some tutorials to study, I may get to it this weekend when I have more time, but wanted to try something quick to acknowledge the critique. I will also get to the lighting - I had taken down the whites and highlights a bit, but I see what you point out.
Greg