Cropping - A Bird's Eye View

Even when taking the shot I knew it was a keeper. You just get that feeling. And admittedly the shot on the left is what I pictured in terms of scale and carrying the sky. The shape, content and colors caught my eye. The few people I shared the shot with liked the initial shot as is.

Not long after I submitted the shot to a class I have been taking. And when hearing other opinions about crop, focus and content it was a big rethink. The class was about bird photography and the top-down consensus was to crop it somewhat, loose the cable and focus on the bird. The file was shot with my Canon, and we have plenty of data to enlarge the image.

Just being a photographer and not a bird specialist it’s not a strategy that would come to mind. So, I tried it. The right photo is cropped which enlarges the image, detail enhanced a touch and slight color and saturation enhancement. I left the cable as I like it and taking it out will introduce potential imperfections with shadows and the bird’s leg. Overall, the photo changes from a big picture of colors and shapes to a focused image of the bird and it still has the colors and shapes.

Right click on one of the images and you will be able to do an A/B comparison. In doing the images enlarge and the improvement becomes even more apparent. The bird's eye becomes more engaging which changes the image's personality from a photo to a portrait. The takeaway for me is being open to comments and to experimentation. In his case it made what I thought was a good shot even better.

Feel free to send comments at mpez13@gmail.com.

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