Brambling

[Svante Larsson]

Nikon D300
500 mm f/4 + TC1.7
ISO 400
Aperture prio
1/160 f/6.7
Fillflash

Bird was walking around on the ground close to a feeder in a nature reserve around 50 km north of Stockholm.

Processing - cloned a lot of smaller twigs and pine needles, levels and curves, blurring the background a bit and some sharpening.

I am not to sure about the Greenfinch in the background - do you feel it is a problem ?

[Joel Eade]

Hi Svante,

You did a good job with the exposure and sharpness. Nice use of fill flash here,,,looks good. The head angle and eye contact are spot on.

I do think the background is somewhat distracting in that it is "busy" with alot of elements that take my eye from the main subject. The head of the finch isn't too bad but the tail definitely is distracting to me.

The pine cones also are somewhat distracting too....you could remove those elements if you took the time and you are so inclined to alter your image that much. The bird itself is beautiful.

Joel

[Joel Eade]

I did a quick (not so meticulous) repost with removal of some elements with a layer mask a blur and reverse S curve on the background to reduce contrast just to give you an idea .... hope you don't mind

[Gus Hallgren]

Hej Svenska pojke, like your capture, repost well done.

TFS

Gus aka Gustaf Sixten

[Mark Young]

Beautiful colours and details in this image. Joel's repost and clone work have worked a treat.