Nest Building Double-crested Cormorant

[Steven Grogger]

Took this mid-morning at the Denver City Park. Many Cormorants building their nests. What do you think of the crop? Wanted to focus on the eye and stick, also the wings were out of focus. Adjusted curves in ACR and sharpened.

Camera: Canon 50D
F-stop: F/5.6
ISO: 100
Focal length: 400mm
Metering Mode: Evaluative

[Desmond Chan]

What do you think of the crop?

Would prefer no cropping of the wings

And I can see some white fringes around the bird. Nice capture nonetheless.

[Sid Garige]

What do you think of the crop?

Steve,

Quoting Dale Franz from the following therad
http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...-Worth-Keeping

I don't necessarily agree about clipped body parts being a fatal flaw. In many many dealings with photo editors, the final end users fo my images, I've had well composed images cropped, cutting off tails, legs etc in order to fit their layout or visual concept. When the editors wish to show action they'll often crop in real tight on the image to emphasize the portrayed action.

When we want to maximize viewers attention to show behavior or action tighter crops work well compared to full body images. IF you want to tell a story abut cormorant carrying a stick your crop portrays that very well.

[Steven Grogger]

This is the original image with the whole bird. I still like the first posting because it shows his amazing eye in much more detail and his determination to bring the stick to the nest. This image seems to lack the detail on the eye and stick of the first crop. Thanks you all for the critiques!

[Desmond Chan]

This image seems to lack the detail on the eye and stick of the first crop.

If you want to focus on the eye and the stick, I think you should crop even tighter.

[Kerry Perkins]

Steven, I like the crop just as it is in the original post. You made a decision that was sound and did a good job of putting the focus where you wanted it. I would not want to see any more or less of a crop. The original capture is very well composed! I do see the sharpening halos around the bird, but you could minimize those with a bit of blur tool around the edges. You didn't mention your shutter speed but I'm guessing it was in the neighborhood of 1/500? The exposure is really very good. Nice job!

P.S. - would be helpful if you included all the tech details (shutter speed, shooting mode, exposure compensation, etc.)

[Dawn Currie]

Looking at both images, I'm going to agree with Kerry. I originally thought that it would be nice to have the entire wing, but after seeing the difference I believe you made the image stronger with the tighter crop.

[Steven Grogger]

Thank you for all the comments

Shutter Speed: 1/800
Shooting mode: AV
Exposure compensation: 0
Metering Mode: Evaluative

[Kerry Perkins]

Thanks for the added techs Steven!