Tree Sparrow looking back

[Dan Busby]

I wasn't sure about the pose of this Tree Sparrow but then decided to throw it out for comments. I would normally look for a pose where the beak was above the bird's back. But the more I looked at this one the more I kind of liked the lines along the bird's head, beak and back. Softness around the legs is due to way oof branch in foreground. Thoughts and comments appreciated!

About a 25% crop, slight sharpening.

Canon 7D, Canon 500F4
AP, F4, 1/197 sec, ISO 640, pattern metering

[Bryan Hix]

I like the pose and the BG, but the area around the eye could be lightened (I'm guessing the sun was coming from the right and behind the bird). The most noticeable thing is the blurry lower half of the photo. No sure why that is?

[Duane Noblick]

I do like this HA. Nice and sharp around the head and a shame about the oof branch in the lower part of the bird.

[Tony Whitehead]

I think the pose and colour palette of the image work really well. Plumage detail is great but the OOF branch is distracting to my eye and spoils what could be a very appealing image. I have tried a version with a slight contrast boost and a more aggressive curves adjustment masked to the breast , feet and perch to try and miminise to loss of contrast from the OOF branch. Trying this on the raw file and then doing some noise reduction on the area would give a better result.

[arash_hazeghi]

Excellent pose, BG, perch and details. I like the HA too. Looks like something had originally blocked the lower left part of the image and it looks a bit hazy. Tony's repost is an improvement but it has created fair bit of grain in the chest area. TFS