Cardinal Glam Photos

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Here's a couple of photos of female cardinals (lower resolution). Any thoughts or feedback?
7377 scrn.jpg
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The crop on the first one looks awkward, the subject is to the right and facing right while there is more space on the left. I'd crop the left side in to remove the small branch and add more to the right if possible (maybe use Steve's technique to add some room!) I'd bring up the mid tones in both, birds look a little dark/muddy to me; they could be brighter with a little more pop (contrast). Looks like you could brighten the entire shot as there seems to be a half stop or more left in the snow before it blows out. The second one could use a little more space around the bird, looks a bit cramped to me.
 
My first impression is that the color is very "muddy" and dark. Upping exposure may help that. I don't mind the cropping so much, except for the very dark branch on the left in the first one: I'd either crop or cut that out. The bird in the first one is a bit too far to the right but I realize that sometimes that can't be helped and I have not seen the original image so I don't know what you are working with. Cropping to a very small size can mean the image cannot be printed very large...if it's just for web use it would not be a problem. You might also want to lighten the one branch that is so dark next to the face of the cardinal in the second shot (since I'm a PS user I'd probably just remove both branches and the dark spot at the bottom by the trunk and at the top...I do tend to get picky). I really like the wing action in the top shot.
 
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