How to improve this photograph?

[Cristobal]

I would not try to make the background uniform. That's just a difficult road to go down if that's always your goal, given how nature is not going to play ball with you that way.

Instead, I would mask the background completely and slightly reduce luminance and saturation (it's already soft so no need to do negative texture / sharpness), while at the same time slightly raising those same values for the subject. Making the bird POP with a difference in perceived light and color will do wonders to keep the eye from noticing what's behind, especially since there are no actual spectral highlights. Making those adjustments in small increments will keep it real.

Chris

Thank you for your suggestion; my goal is certainly not to make the background uniform; I tried, as you told me, playing with luminance and saturation, texture and sharpness of the background but the result was not convincing for me; indeed, this photo has some interest for myself and even if I am not an adept of post processing, I remain very curious about the opportunities offered by Lightroom classic and Photoshop and it's a good practice too.

 

[Jadiehl]

I am a fan of adjusting the background in the camera with minimal post-processing…not always possible, but like others in this post I find the original background more pleasing to my eyes.