Great Spotted Woodpecker (female)

[Anders Nielsen]

I was trying to photograph some small birds (at my feeder station in my backyard) as this woodpecker landed on the perch. she was app. 4 meters from me and I couldn't fit her in the frame so I went for some close-ups. I don't know if I should have cropped out the out of focus perch in the lower right corner but I chose not to.

Please share your thoughts on this photo and if you can tell me how to improve I will appreciate it a lot!:)

Canon EOS 400D
EF 400mm f/5.6L USM

1/125, f/5.6, ISO 800, tripod
Levels, noisereduction, crop, smartsharpen.

[Fabs Forns]

Anders, it looks pretty good to me, black and whites have detail except for the black breast and back where the side light makes you loose it. I would crop a tiny bit more from the left to avoid the little piece of a flower in the bottom.

[Jim Poor]

This is real nice as is. Getting rid of the oof perch in the lower left would make it that much better. Depending on your preferences, you could either crop from the left, crop from the bottom, or clone it out.

I really like the fine details in and around the face along with a really pleasing background.

[Manos Papadomanolakis]

I Iike the dark bg and the pose,i agree for the small piece of flower

[Blake Shadle]

I like the placement of the bird's head from left to right, so my suggestion would be to crop some off the bottom (just above the light green - I'll take a stab and say lichen). I'd also try to lighten some of the shadows. A nice sharp image with a pleasant background overall.

[Del Cockroft]

A nicely exposed black and white. The woodpecker stands out very well against the dark BG. I like the placement of the bird.

[Stephen Stephen]

Nice capture Anders. I like the cathclight in the eye and I think that Blake's suggested crop would fit this image well.

[Glenn Bartley]

Neat portrait. I would either crop tighter or clone out the bit of branch in the bottom left.

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Beautiful portrait with beautiful eye contact. I like how it is cropped now and I would be tempted to clone out the flower so as to keep the image as posted.

[Robert O'Toole]

Nice work, I love the patterns, shapes and tones.

The only problem other that those mentioned, is the contrast with the whites being too bright.
Instead of levels, try selecting the whites and putting them on a sep layer so you can protect them to open the darks. This way the white and back contrast will be much less.

Robert