Post processing of bird photos is extremely important for making them realistic and suitable for commercial stock usage. Your image is competing with millions of other photos and when your photo isn’t something exceptional, it is the post processing that would make your image stand out of the crowd. Here is a suggested workflow:

Portrait photography requires a level of trust, intimacy and spontaneity that other types of photography work simply do not. Your subject can often also be less than comfortable with one of these elements, so as a photographer, it’s important to have a failsafe routine in place that you know is going to produce great results, whether you know the subject or not.