Great photo of a Northern Cardinal. Did you crop the original JPG for the redo? The reason I ask is because the original colors are richer and more vibrant, and if redoing the original as a JPG, you have the slight deteriation that is normal that I see in a lot of redo's.
Crop wise ~ as the original Cardinal is extra nice I think that it is simply a matter of taste, and at first look the redo crop looked good until I noticed the Cardinal. I scrolled the photo up and down simulating a crop, and liked more than one sample.
All in all the original is very pleasant, and I for one like it very much as good Cardinal photos are not easy to come by. I have the Cardinals back this year, occassionaly visit our garden and wish I could get a shot as good as yours.
Denise, forgive the horrible edit below but its late here. The right hand branch isnt serving any purpose in your photo so i would remove it. When i figure out quick mask, then i can do it properly. For now i just blanked it out. I also rotated the bird a bit to have a more "normal" orientation. The focus is now on the bird.
The photo is nice and sharp and there is nice colour and feather detail. You also caught a highlight in the eye. Nicely done.
This is just my opinion how I would like it . . . not saying how it should be, and many times it's hard to visulize in words. Someone else's opinion may grab me when I see it.
I also added the tiniest smidge of curves, vibrance, and Lab Mode USM (27-1-0) to offset working in JPG
Denise, lovely image of a tough bird!!! Love the eye contact and the red color is great, reds can go pretty wonky and yours is just right. I prefer the 2nd crop
Hi Denise - For me the bird is perfect: good exposure, sharp, good details. I looked at the image for quite a while to see if I thought the first image was indeed to crowded (one of my personal goals is to learn how to incorporate habitat without confusion), and then looked at the various re-posts. My thought is that the composition problem is with the bird as photographed - I really miss seeing more of the body and tail; he seems very foreshortened (if that is the right term), so I think my mind's eye is trying to complete the bird.
Just a thought
Cheers
Gail
This is a 5 min jiffy fix using Brush Tool, picking up original colours with eye dropper and applying them with Brush hardness at Zero, and opacity from 50% at start going down to 12% with a delicate touch.
Uncle Gus
BTW: I think Gail hit the nail on the head, and that I should not have done a redo, as I could not improve on the original.
Thanks everyone for your help-I have the Cardinal in almost every pose but this one -so to me I like it-also I orig. cloned out all but perch branch-but felt it looked empty-I've decided to go w/ 2nd post -Again Thankyou all for your time and imput!
i like the second one too denise! the pose doesnt matter as much here because there's such a strong connection with the bird. and it's tack sharp!! well done.
Lady Denise,
I like the second post. The placement of your subject is unconventional, but in this case it works for me because this is part of the habitat that he is in; also he is peeking through the two branches and it does look natural. I like the details and color rendition. the head angle and eye contact are dead on ...well done. the dark, pale subdued background complements him very well...a big congrats...:cool:
Male Cardinal
Posting Permissions
