It's easy to make large detail stand out but it's more of a challenge to make small detail stand out. You're already at the limit of how much sharpening you can give it.

You're also right in thinking that lightness and darkness (i.e. contrast) is a factor. An increase in contrast gives an increase in vividness and an increase in vividness gives an impression of increased sharpness. However, you're already at the limit of how much contrast you can give it.

Much of what we do in editing is about increasing vividness. For example we need to add sharpness only up to the point where it gives an increase in vividness. Any more than that is excessive and is likely to produce unwanted effects. And it's not a good idea to depend on any one thing to add vividness. Sharpness, contrast, saturation and relative brightness should all be used together, but never to excess.

OK, your sharpness, contrast and saturation are pretty much at their maximum. So what does that leave? There are three things you can change - your expectations, the vividness of competing elements and their relative brightness. If you try to push contrast, sharpness and saturation any further you'll end up with an overcooked look. What you can do is reduce the vividness of anything that's not the finch - in particular the seeds. My suggestion is to select the seeds and reduce their contrast a little. That allows you to reduce their vividness without reducing the detail or colour. You could also brighten the finch a little and darken the seeds a little, especially the highlights (the eye is drawn to bright objects).

You could also give the finch a WB shift towards yellow and the background a WB shift towards blue (warm colours advance and cool colours retreat). Plus warm colours (red, orange, yellow and yellow-green) are more vivid than the cooler colours (green and blue).

It's easy to make large detail stand out but it's more of a challenge to make small detail stand out. You're already at the limit of how much sharpening you can give it.

You're also right in thinking that lightness and darkness (i.e. contrast) is a factor. An increase in contrast gives an increase in vividness and an increase in vividness gives an impression of increased sharpness. However, you're already at the limit of how much contrast you can give it.

Much of what we do in editing is about increasing vividness. For example we need to add sharpness only up to the point where it gives an increase in vividness. Any more than that is excessive and is likely to produce unwanted effects. And it's not a good idea to depend on any one thing to add vividness. Sharpness, contrast, saturation and relative brightness should all be used together, but never to excess.

OK, your sharpness, contrast and saturation are pretty much at their maximum. So what does that leave? There are three things you can change - your expectations, the vividness of competing elements and their relative brightness. If you try to push contrast, sharpness and saturation any further you'll end up with an overcooked look. What you can do is reduce the vividness of anything that's not the finch - in particular the seeds. My suggestion is to select the seeds and reduce their contrast a little. That allows you to reduce their vividness without reducing the detail or colour. You could also brighten the finch a little and darken the seeds a little, especially the highlights (the eye is drawn to bright objects).

You could also give the finch a WB shift towards yellow and the background a WB shift towards blue (warm colours advance and cool colours retreat). Plus warm colours (red, orange, yellow and yellow-green) are more vivid than the cooler colours (green and blue).

It's easy to make large detail stand out but it's more of a challenge to make small detail stand out. You're already at the limit of how much sharpening you can give it.

You're also right in thinking that lightness and darkness (i.e. contrast) is a factor. An increase in contrast gives an increase in vividness and an increase in vividness gives an impression of increased sharpness. However, you're already at the limit of how much contrast you can give it.

Much of what we do in editing is about increasing vividness. For example we need to add sharpness only up to the point where it gives an increase in vividness. Any more than that is excessive and is likely to produce unwanted effects. And it's not a good idea to depend on any one thing to add vividness. Sharpness, contrast, saturation and relative brightness should all be used together, but never to excess.

OK, your sharpness, contrast and saturation are pretty much at their maximum. So what does that leave? There are three things you can change - your expectations, the vividness of competing elements and their relative brightness. If you try to push contrast, sharpness and saturation any further you'll end up with an overcooked look. What you can do is reduce the vividness of anything that's not the finch - in particular the seeds. My suggestion is to select the seeds and reduce their contrast a little. That allows you to reduce their vividness without reducing the detail or colour. You could also brighten the finch a little and darken the seeds a little, especially the highlights (the eye is drawn to bright objects).

You could also give the finch a WB shift towards yellow and the background a WB shift towards blue (warm colours advance and cool colours retreat). Plus warm colours (red, orange, yellow and yellow-green) are more vivid than the cooler colours (green and blue).