Black-capped Chickadee

[Paul Merritt]

40D with 400 f/5.6L Av Mode ISO 400 1/500 sec f/5.6 spot metering

[Nicki Gwynn Jones]

Hi Paul,
A sweet capture of a lovely little bird. I do feel that the perch overpowers it somewhat and on the LHS of the bird's breast I can see an odd streak of white?
Best,
Nicki

[Phil Ertel]

I like the background and the angle of the bird as it provides a good view of the bird with a good head angle. I see good detail.

The light on the bird appears to have been a little harsh as the white are bright in spots and the darks especially in the thorax area are dark. I agree with NIcki's comment on the size of the perch. If this is a set-up and this is the size of bird you targeting, I would suggest trying a smaller diameter perch.

This is what I would do if this were my image.

1) I would lighten the image. A curves adjustment with a reversed curves to reduce the contrast a little and lighten the image and then to open the dark area of the bird I would run some shadow/highlight adjustment. I toned down the perch due to it becoming to light for my taste from the pervious adjustments

2) I see some green on the white of the breast (probably from the vegetation). I used a color and selected an area of white that should match and painted over the green. I did the same on the tail only selected a gray area to match.

[Arthur Morris]

The repost is a big improvement but there is still too much green on the breast feathers. Was this at a feeder set-up? Denise Ippolito has a pretty good trick that she uses to make too fat perches skinnier. I have not learned that one yet.

[Paul Merritt]

Was this at a feeder set-up?

Yes, it was near a feeder.

[Arthur Morris]

Ah, that's what I thought. You might wish to learn to select and set up attractive perches near you feeder. First I would recommend studying the Backyard Set-up section of the practicalities section of The Art of Bird Photography II (916 pages on CD only) and once you have mastered the basics, get a copy of Alan Murphy's Guide to Songbird Set-Up Photography.