birds Soft on a Titmouse

Comments appreciated, too tight on the crop?

Yes, a little too tight. I said a little ! This is a very beautiful photo ! Good work !!

Good job Mary Fran, too tight for my taste, IMHO a small bird should appear relatively small in the frame never larger than life size in an 8x10. I also find that cropping too much causes loss of detail. But still a fine capture.(sorry you asked?)

Regards, B.

Thank you both, not at all sorry I asked. There seem to be multiple schools of thought on the birds, so I'd like to see what various folks think. I had a feeling it was a bit tight, ask and yee shall learn. Thanks again. Jonathan, where have you been? I'd like to see some butterflies!

Let me know if you prefer this crop...

nice shot mary, welldone, i would use a bit more space above the head, just a bit, bravo, RK!

Mary, I like the tighter crop better (not only because the other one centers the bird too much). You got the detail on the bird and the focus is spot on, so why not "blow it up". Great shot in my book.

Thanks Rafik and Deiter. Rafik, I finally got one too tight for you :0)

Deiter you ID'd my personal dilema, really "show off" a sharp close up or

keep the scale as Bill noted. I think I can add a bit over the head as Rafik and Jonathan suggested and come to a compromise between these two versions that would work for all. Thanks for all the feedback, very helpful.

 

The compromise...

Prefer the original proportions with a bit more vertically especially above the head -- the third edit is the charm for me...that's the one I like best

I like the original. And if you get the focus dead-on like this pic, blow it up! 6/6

Sweet and soft; very good composition and details; good DOF and use of light! Regards, Catalin

This is absolutely gorgeous, Mary Fran.7/7 The crop is tight, but compositionally perfect. That said, I still had an uneasy gut feeling, and tried my usual remedy. I call it, Western Hemisphere-itis, and am more comfortable with left to right. OK, laugh, but I'm old enough to have these quirks.

Thanks Doug, like that too. How do you do that?

It's called, "Flopping" and is simply turning the slide or negative, upside down. In the editor I use, there's a button for "Flip Horizontal" and another for "Vertical". It's just a one click thing, after you've finished your editing/enhancing. I just checked in PhotoShop, ans it's almost as simple, but as always, a few extra clicks.

Image>Rotate, and select Flip Horizontal,(from the fly-out Options)

I just checked the above in Elements 2. I have PS - 3, 5 and 6 as well, but don't remember if they had it.

Here's another mostly useless, but sometimes fun, plugin, that's provided through PhotoFiltre.

Geeze, I could have a lot of fun with this stuff. That really works well on this shot. I have some other skills I need to develop though...the fun will have to wait :(