Great Blue - Cropping suggestions

[Stephen Stephen]

Hi everyone. I took this shot last September and like it since it's not a "GBH on one leg". This is the full frame (I have another in portrait mode) but wanted you opinions on whether or not I should crop it and how. I partial to it as posted because of the feather layers but I also thought about a tighter crop somehow around the eye.

What do you think?

Canon Rebel XT, Sigma 50-500mm @500 on Manfroto monopod. Fill flash used.

ISO 400, F 9.0, 1/320, White balance - Cloudy

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s219/Squidcan/Birds/GBH04.jpg

[Peter Hawrylyshyn]

stephen -
an interesting pose and great feather details which to me makes the photo

i think your signature is too dark and detracts from the image
i would have added canvas at the top and gone for a vertical crop

there's also something about the eye - the brid's head is upside down, yet the eye appears to be at the top. i realize that's what was there, but if OK by you, maybe experiment with re-aligning the pupil as described in Robert O'Toole's APTATS-1 disk

nice job
peter

[Mike Milicia]

Love the layers of feathers and great detail !
You seem to have some headroom in the whites to lighten the image up a bit
and a I think a boost in contrast would also help to make it pop.

As far a crop, I think in this case you want to a bit tighter to emphasize the intimacy and detail.
Something like this maybe :

[Gerald Kelberg]

Hi,
I like the image and the feather detail is great; Rebel XT, eh?
Cropping is an interesting challenge. I looked at different extreme crops featuring the eye or the wing feathers but couldn't get it to work. Then looked at Mike's suggestion and decided to be a bit contrary (can't help it!) - I found I liked taking the left edge in closer to the wing, about 2/3rds of the distance. It was interesting because it brought the eye more to the centre of the image and seemed to get more from the diagonal of the head and beak.
Agree with Peter, that signature kills it!

But then, what would I know!

Gerald

[Stephen Stephen]

Thank you Peter, Mike and Gerald for you comments and suggestions. I'll experiment with this image some more. I've also got some portraits in a simlar pose sine this fellow preened for about 20 minutes.

I'll also remember the point about the dark signature.