Beautiful capture here, I love the bird, BG and perch. I am OK with both versions.Like you, I can't seem to make up my mind. The first lends some environment to the scene while the second is more focused on the bird. I am looking forward to seeing other comments.
PS: After examining and comparing for many long minutes, I think I will cast my vote for the second image.
Last edited by joel quenneville; 03-11-2009 at 09:17 PM.
The branch behind the bird that you removed would be OK either way for me as it enters the frame and mimics the diagonal of the bird - but I prefer to see it gone. However, the one in the front needs to go from a purely compositional reason. Having a diagonal entering and exiting the frame in a corner like that unbalances the image. I do not feel it balances with the perched bird at all. Only including more of the perch to give this detached branch someplace to anchor itself would make it work. However, the bird will become smaller int he frame and less the center of interest.
So overall, I like the second one better but would now crop off some of the excess space in front of the bird.
I like the 2nd one with the cleaner BKGR--no shock there. The 2nd one also looks a tad less contrasty....
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Thanks a lot guys for comments, I wanted to maintain 3:2 aspect ratio thus the empty space to the left of the bird, I'll try portrait to see if it gets better