Mixing Colour and Sepia for Critique

[Beaux Reflets]

What do folk think ?

[SimonW]

I like it. Really draws attention to the bird.

[Reinardina]

I like it as it looks natural, not like a black and white shot with a colour pop.

[Beaux Reflets]

Thank you Simon and Reinardina.

I was unhappy with the high level of digital noise and lack in sharpness in the original shot (and nearly binned it); but this aspect seems to become lost so to speak, after a few tweaks, with the softening effects associated with the muted tones in Sepia.

[StephenBatey]

If you hadn't said anything, I wouldn't have picked up that it was sepia, as the muted browns seem entirely in character for the background. I've seen skies which are that colour.

My biggest point is the way the thin twig just passes behind the tit's head, giving a small confusion of line (note - I always look at images from the viewpoint of an image, without worrying about the technical difficulties - or even technical ease - needed).

The current framing with several branches exiting the frame leads to an impression of openness and space; the brighter area behind the bird accentuates this. You can get a very different effect by a crop that cuts off the left hand side to leave just the main vertical branch, and a crop on the right to just include the branches that cross behind the bird, leaving it in a rectangle of branches, with the bird on the mid line. But at this point, the softness becomes evident.

[Beaux Reflets]

Thanks for your thoughts Stephen.

Looking again, I totally agree with you regarding the twig behind the tit's head.

As the quality of the bird's detail is not that special (ie. OK as a small thumbnail image but not an enlarged one and therefore not of commercial worth) I will probably leave it as is for the time being.

That said I may at a later date do a composit image replacing the tit with another, and the twig would be accordingly fused into or lost to the background.