New gardner

[Pedro6]

He/she does it all for free. Patiently waits for grubs or worms in the lawn to commit suicide.
Minimal PP as jpeg from new 5div but in future will be RAW +jpeg
Any advice to improve most welcome.
I presently use Corel Aftershot and Paintshop

[pnodrog]

What a privilege to have your own gardner. I have seen them help at a BBQ by flying off with an unattended sausage.

[Round Tuit]

You have a good capture of your volunteer gardener. The bird stands out well against the blurry background although it appears to be also slightly out of focus. From a composition point of view, it is usually preferable to avoid cutting limbs from your subject.

I look forward to seeing more of your picture.

[Geoff F]

I would slightly crop the top and left side.

The white areas are slightly over exposed. Black and white objects, particularly wildlife, are very difficult to capture perfectly in one shot. If you are familiar with using layers and masks I would suggest returning to the original and making two copies, one exposed for the midtones (background etc) and one for the white areas which can have the highlights darkened to remove most of the over exposure. Then merge the layers together so the final image consists of the midtones from one image with the darker highlights from the other image (layer).

If you aren't familiar with layers etc, simply darkening the highlights would help. Layers/masks may initially seem difficult but in a basic form they will eventually make sense once you read about the technique and follow a few tutorials.

[Pedro6]

You have a good capture of your volunteer gardener. The bird stands out well against the blurry background although it appears to be also slightly out of focus. From a composition point of view, it is usually preferable to avoid cutting limbs from your subject.

I look forward to seeing more of your picture.

Yes looking again I see foot cropped to closely.

[Pedro6]

I would slightly crop the top and left side.

The white areas are slightly over exposed. Black and white objects, particularly wildlife, are very difficult to capture perfectly in one shot. If you are familiar with using layers and masks I would suggest returning to the original and making two copies, one exposed for the midtones (background etc) and one for the white areas which can have the highlights darkened to remove most of the over exposure. Then merge the layers together so the final image consists of the midtones from one image with the darker highlights from the other image (layer).

If you aren't familiar with layers etc, simply darkening the highlights would help. Layers/masks may initially seem difficult but in a basic form they will eventually make sense once you read about the technique and follow a few tutorials.

It did not help that he was sitting on a white water tank.
Unfortunately I have not mastered layers and other advanced PP procedures yet. It will come eventually.
Will go back and try playing with highlights.