This image is from the trip to Rudong County (Jiangsu, China). Patient pursuit paid off. As darkness fell, this very shy female white-throated rock thrush finally rested on a low branch within range. I tightened my tripod head, turned VR off, and pulled out the shutter-release cord. The result: a stable image of an uncommon bird. I cloned out twigs in the bottom left and top right as well as just above the head of the bird. The green background is as the camera recorded it.
Craig, Good pose, and framed nicely in the fork of the perch. Interesting green colour in the BG, and if this was mine, I would move the thrush and perch back to the right - that the outside of the upright part of the perch is touching the edge of the frame. Im not familiar with this species, but there seems to be a slight green cast on him. I could be wrong. ( its been a looong day )
I agree that the background is a bit overpowering, so I would tone that down some. I think Stuart is right, with all that bright
yellow-green around, there's a natural cast on the bird and perch. I selectively worked that out with curves adjustments.
This is a pleasing composition. I found it a useful exercise to just play around with cloning out parts of the background leaves,
and in some places adding a little. Just look at the overall figure of everything that isn't plain background, and play with shapes.
Doesn't much matter where you end up; the process of playing is a good right-brain workout in shaping a composition.
On this animated gif, you can see where I altered the background ...
Very nice capture, eye contact and setting. David's repost shows really well what you could do with the image if that is within the range of PS work that you are comfortable with.
Thanks to David for the re-posts. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to see them--whether in Safari (iPhone), Firefox, or IE. So I just had to guess at what your results looked like. In my re-post, I have toned down the green background some and most importantly removed the greenish tint on the thrush. I agree with David's opinion that playing with the images is a good right-brain workout. I find that my work on the computer influences my work in the field, as I am better able to "see" the composition while photographing the bird.