Caught your original image, had a look and a read through the comments posted.

Hope you don't mind in my keeping all my words in one place on your image's page here.

Where the original was concerned..

I liked the composition.

Wasn't entirely sure, at first.. given the almost centered placement of the parrot's head/eye.

Then.. the elements of the converging lines of the leaves/fronds came to the forefront in setting up the composition. Directing your viewer's eyes to the fine-feathered clown and star of your photo.


Not sure if it was a question of focus being a tad soft (as mentioned by another commmenter).. or, perhaps that of some motion blur?

Although, I do agree that dialing in the f-stop/DOF some more.. would have worked towards isolating your subject from the background.


Colours were/are good good. Red being a very difficult colour to accurately capture. And I think you did well with respect to this facet of the colour spectrum. As well as, the other colours being quite nice and natural.


Caveats? (Still referencing the original here.)

The one bright area above the parrot's head. Bit distracting.

Still and with that said, overall exposure is good good.


Onto your revised version above..


Got my own creative curiosity peaked as to how your original could be improved, if possible.

So..

Downloaded it and messed around in Photoshop. Here are the end results:

"Parrot scratching its head" - Adjusted/Cropped

Won't elaborate (to save your eyes some more wear and tear from the novel already appearing from me here), other than to make mention of a onsite tutorial I employed.

That of; philcUK's "Faking the HDR thing...". Towards the ends of adding some dimensionality and bringing the parrot 'forward'.. and ... mitigating the brighter/highlighted areas some.


Being bold here, I think the combination of your crop and the post processing in my 'rework' would be the best of the two creative worlds.

Your crop/composition here is very strong. And I like it, solved the issue of centering your subject in the original incarnation.

Your post processing is a lil' heavy. In my humble opinion.

I can appreciate what you were trying to accomplish, however.. and if I may state ... the natural colour contrasts of red and green were part of the original's appeal for me.

Still and with allllll that said..


Good good work, and.. your being open to constructive criticism and trying out some stuff.

Of the two, and again, being bold here.. prefer the original.

So..

Go figure?

:oP


I am kidding a bit in that last part. Differing opinion(s) and nothing more.

Thanks for sharing both versions with us. And for taking the time to do so. :o)

p.s. Hope you don't mind that I messed around with your photo. Just wanted to put a picture to my words, simply put.

If you are bothered, let me know.. and down it comes. No questions asked.