Hi Mark,
This is a very nice capture of this wattle bird; and part of what makes it appealing is that is has been nicely framed between the branch and the leaves of the tree.
One thing that makes a photograph like this strong, is being able to see the definition in the birds plumage and often that can mean doing a bit of extra work in Photoshop.
A very common technique that is regularly used by photographers to enhance the details in photos like this is to use the Unsharp Mask filter in Photoshop. Rather than making an adjustment of just a couple of pixels though, the trick is to make a very big adjustment. A common adjustment that I use is “Amount: 20%, Radius: 20 Pixels and Threshold: 0”. Adjust the “Amount” to suit.
Many photographers describe this technique as a “local contrast” enhancement.
Once you have applied this technique the next step is to go through and use the healing Brush to remove some of the distracting elements in the photograph.
By the time you have done this I think the photograph should be looking stronger.
Cheers for now, Anthony.
Image Doctor's edited version
