Yellow Headed Black Bird

I have no idea how this picture turned out looking so fake. I did minor PP to try and knock down the over exposure on the chest, but that is it.

What about the overexposure of the tree?
Are we supposed to ignore that?

Robert_Lay wrote in post #10361774
What about the overexposure of the tree?
Are we supposed to ignore that?

Yes you are.

I tried to recover the over exposure to the entire image, but unfortunately the branch is completely blown out. The bird's chest was salvageable and much more important to the image IMO.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Robert_Lay wrote in post #10361774
What about the overexposure of the tree?
Are we supposed to ignore that?

The tree seriously isn't that bad. Given the conditions and the color of the subject, he did a great job.

donttreadonme wrote in post #10361973
Yes you are.

I tried to recover the over exposure to the entire image, but unfortunately the branch is completely blown out. The bird's chest was salvageable and much more important to the image IMO.

Thanks for the suggestions.

OK - fair enough.
May I suggest that if you are not shooting RAW, it would be a good idea to look into that - the recovery possibiities of blown highlights is usually around one full f-stop.

Another possibility is to check your Highlight Alert feature on the histogram display in the camera. That way you can adjust the exposure and check it before you leave the scene.

For a bird shot.I think is a good photo.send it over to the bird forum here, and you will get good feedback.