Pheasant tiptoeing on ice

[Dave Hardcastle]

Took this on a cold morning at a wildfowl and wetlands centre in Lancashire, England. The pheasant just walked straight across and didn't hang around, so I didn't have time to change lens or fine-tune the composition. I wish he was looking slightly more to his left. Anyone got any thoughts on how I could improve the composition of this? I've already cropped some off the top. I could crop right behind the legs and put the head in the upper-right corner, but this would be quite a big crop and I don't like losing the tail.

Grateful for any thoughts,

Dave.

Canon 400D with EF 400mm F5.6L, evaluative metering at 0, 1/1250 at f5.6, ISO 200.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Pretty cool, the pheasant walks really carefully. :) I like the colors and details and agree regarding the head angle. The composition looks good to me, I'm wondering if it needs a bit CCW rotation. Keep them coming!

[ChasMcRae]

To me the picture is the unusual action (walking across ice)and nice lighting.
Yes a shame head is angled and tail is cut off, but Im glad I got to see this action.
Im not sure you can improve comp because weakness has been stated. The tail was not cropped off was it ?
Love to see more out of England.

Chas.

[david cramer]

Beautiful colors and interesting action. I would add the tail tip and a little canvas on the rear.

[Arthur Morris]

All good comments above. Lovely light. If you de-SAT the reds a bit and add a lot of CYAN to the reds in Selectgive Color the red face wattle would look a lot more natural.

Big time bummer that he was walking/facing away otherwise this had the makings of a contest winner.

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Stunning lighting and detail. I agree with the above comments. Beautiful image and many thanks for sharing Dave.

[Juan Aragonés]

Love the light, pose of the bird and the unusual situation of the pheasant. I agree with your self critic about the head turn. It is not easy to work on composition with birds that have such a long tail like this guy. I would keep the composition untouched

[Dave Hardcastle]

All,

Many thanks for your comments. I haven't done any horizontal cropping of it, so the end of the tail is forever gone! I'm not sure my photoshop skills are up to adding a tail tip and more canvas at the rear of the bird. I should try to learn though...

Interested in Artie's comments about using selective colour to make the red face look more natural - I was a bit worried I'd oversaturated the whole image. Have just read the selective colour section in ABPII and it sounds like a good idea, except I only have Photoshop Elements and don't think I have that option.

Thanks again,

Dave.

[Arthur Morris]

Hey Dave, I have never opened Elements but I am betting that there is a Hue-Saturation box with a drop-down menu for the various channels. Check it out and let us know. You might de-SAT the yellows but just a bit. The reds would need -10 to -20 or so.

[Dave Hardcastle]

Thanks Artie. Just to clarify, were you suggesting desaturating the whole image or just the face?

There's definitely a Hue/Saturation Adjustment layer in Elements. I've desaturated the whole image: the reds by -10 and the yellows by -2. Desaturating the reds more loses some of the golden glow of the body of the pheasant. I think this looks slightly more natural.

Cheers,

Dave.