Lovely singing pose, great light, and excellent sharpness. I might crop a bit off the top and also clone out the partial leaf at the bottom right. Good to see you posting again!
Jan is great to see your images here again. Please do not forget to include technical details with the images ;)
I have to agree with Doug about a litle bit croping at the top of the image. The light is really sweet and stuning, sharpness and BG terrific and superb timing. The small croped leaf on the LRC could be cloned out to improve the image and I think that a very letle selective levels adjustment on that great eye would make this image even better. As usually, very good job and congratulations for your tufted duck :)
Jan I worked the eye and made a selective levels adjustment to extract more details from the dark areas and to enhace the catch light but, being honest, it is very difficult to show the result using this small websize image but I hope that it would help to give you an idea about what I am talking about. I croped the head and resized up to 200% to try to show more details in the result but I am sure that if you do the same with the original, larger file, the result would be much better. I selected the eye, then made a copy in a new layer and I made the levels adjustment. Then I used a soft brush in delete mode to finish the edges and that is all. Hope this help
Regarding the croping at the top, well I think that it is a personal choice and the image works really fine in the way you posted and do not forget that to keep the 2:3 ratio is not mandatory but just a personal choice ;)
k, I see where you are going to :) Thanks
For a bigger print I would definitely work on the eye as well :)
Regarding the ratio.....yeah...that's my personal thing, no idea why I always want to stick with it. :D
This is one sweet image. In addition to all the other comments, I like the diagonal perch.
Thanks for sharing...
__________________________
Charlie Wesley
St. Augustine Beach, FL http://naturesphotographs.com
Sweet, sweet light Jan, and this is really sharp. I like the pose, together with the open beak. I would crop from the bottom, to where the perch comes into the frame.
Superb light and singing pose. Another vote for cropping from below (to just remove the leaf) - the BG is stunning and losing a little from the bottom evens the gradation from green to brownish. Well done, Jan
I am not sure why this image should be cropped from above. I am on the opposite side.
I guess when there is a singing or moving bird on an image the composition should respect the kinda powerful behavior captured. Any powerful moment should be close to the image frame. No written rule on it but widely accepted. In case cropping from the top the dynamics of this perfectly taken behavior would fade away.
I would rather add a bit more canvas to the top and cut the same amount from the bottom. That is my personal taste and no one should care about it ;)