Cropped or Uncropped?

[DavidT]

I agree about removing some of the image on the right side where the bright background pulls the viewer's eyes away from the prime subject.

I do not go much by the rule of thirds but I will draw an imaginary line from an upper corner diagonally to the opposite lower corner. Often as not the placement of the subject along this line makes for the strongest image.

When I first looked at the image on my screen the first thought I had was that it needed a Levels adjustment.

It’s level

 

[dwillar]

I think uncropped because I like the bird centered the best.

 

[Mark Garfinkel]

Full frame and center crop as I like both of them. It all depends on the finished print and frame display.

 

[Viathelens]

An option....used Transform in LrC and some cropping.

 

[KirstyM]

My rule is to always give the bird room to move in the image, so your crop doesn't work for me. I'll offer two solutions.

The first is a tighter crop at the same aspect ration, but desaturate the blues so that they don't pull the eye away:

View attachment 32259

this is the sort of crop I would go with

 

[Griffym]

I prefer to use cropping sparingly to reframe the image. I think the background here makes cropping difficult. I would crop less than you have. The large shape in the tree branch competes too much with the owl. It’s not often possible but I try to circle around to get a different angle when large objects seem potentially distracting.

I have only taken owl shots successfully in Costa Rica and circling around was not possible because of the jungle. I think the way Viathelens has cropped it is a really decent edit.