Black-headed Grosbeak (first ever post)

[Bruce Spell]

I've been "lurking" for several months now and finally decided to take a chance with my first post. Here's a male Black-headed Grosbeak taken in my backyard. This is a "setup" as he is in a tree near our feeders. What are opinions for the background? Would it be worthwhile to try to eliminate the oof tree limbs behind him?

Olympus E5, DZ 90-250 zoom + 2X TC @ 316 mm (630 mm effective fov), monopod, 1/250, f6.3, ISO 400. I have cropped slightly and did some minor repair to his tail (as I accidentally clipped it slightly).

Bruce

[Kerry Perkins]

Hi Bruce, glad you came out of the shadows and posted. Nice first post and a nice capture with good exposure. I like the pose and perch and your color rendition is very good! Nice sharp eye and overall detail. If it were mine, I would definitely go after those offending twigs. Would be fairly easy with some quick mask or similar selection used to protect the parts you want to keep... To make the job easier, I would crop about half of the space on the right. This would get the bird out of the center of the frame and help direct the viewer's attention to the subject. Looks like the quality of the light was quite nice, but there are some large shadows over the bird and the perch that detract a bit from the image. You are on the right track and have a good eye, looking forward to more.

[Joel Eade]

Agree with above, the basics are solid and I also would crop from the right and work on the shadows on the bird's breast then see if the background needs fixing after that.

Congrats on a really nice first post....keep sharing.

[Cody Covey]

yeah you have beautiful Bokeh there which would make taking those twigs out fairly easy. Great first post!

[Bruce Spell]

Kerry, Joel, Cody -
Thanks for the encouraging words and great suggestions. They seem so obvious after seeing them and trying them out, doh.

Anyway, here's a repost along those lines. I've cropped the original to a portrait orientation (as opposed to the landscape one before), removed the background limbs, and worked on the shadows on the bird just a little. Is this better or did I go too far?

Bruce

[John Chardine]

Great first post and greater repost! Well done Bruce. Welcome to BPN as a poster! I didn't mind the BG as it was, and the OOF branches would be less prominent once you made the crop anyway. The harsh light, filtered through the branches is the "gotcha" here but you did a nice job on the shadows. I can only imagine how beautiful this bird would look in nice, soft light. As it is, you have the sun over your right shoulder so at least the fact is in the light- very good.

[Kerry Perkins]

Bruce, awesome job on the repost! It looks great.