Cloning opinion please

[finnbay]

While all the photos in the Bird Watching thread of our shoot yesterday have the backgrounds as they were taken, this photo was taken while the boreal was sitting in a black spruce just a bit off to the side of where we were shooting. My first inclination is to leave the semi-focused branches as environmental, but in some circles a clean background is to be striven for. Given the choice, would you spend the time cloning the branches out in a shot like this, or leaving it as it was taken?

Thanks for your comments!

[wheres the fish?]

The top one looks alot more natural... I like the more natural pictures myself.

[Dbl]

To me Ken the bottom looks weird with no branches above it. Why only branches below and not above. I am more of the opinion that you clone out a branch or two, but a shot like the first it is what it is. JMHO.

[Steve Foss]

I'm with Dan. Six of one, half dozen of the other. The top branches in the first image are distracting, but the bottom image is bottom heavy, even though I know there are no twigs growing up from the branch the bird is sitting on.

I have no ethical issue with cloning out some elements some of the time, and I've occasionally spent long periods of time doing that, it's just that in my own view it doesn't necessarily help with this image.

[finnbay]

thanks for the feedback. Personally I prefer the first, but I got to playing and thought it would be interesting to see what others had to say. It is bottom heavy and probably should have spent some time cloning the rest of it as well.

[Yeti]

I'm always a fan of the stuff in the background as long as it is not too distracting...and in this case I don't believe it is...with the exception of the "tan" area to the left of the birds head....it almost looks like something in the forground out of focus or maybe lens dust??

I love the composition of the shot...and I appreciate the difficulty in getting a pic of these crazy things standing still...nice job.

[Birdsong]

Finnbay, I don't know if I should be offering an opinion being both a rookie and a Swede , but I realized as I slept on this one, that the sprig of evergreen which runs horizontal to the left of his beak and a little bit of the sprig perpendicular to it in the middle draw my eye immediately to the sprigs and away from the bird. Wonder about the possibility of cloning just the horizontal sprig and a little bit of the vertical without making the photo top heavy. This made for an interesting question and good learning process for everyone.

[Steve Foss]

Finnbay, I don't know if I should be offering an opinion being both a rookie and a Swede

Anyone who likes looking at photographs is qualified to offer an opinion on any photograph, birdsong. As for being a Swede, well, I'll leave that one alone.