Leave It In, Or Take It Out

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gaknott

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I visited a Sandhill Crane Winter habitat yesterday and was fortunate to get some decent shots. Overall, I like this scene but am struggling with leaving the clipped bird in the frame or taking it out; for some reason it seems to add to the photo even if a wing and feet are clipped. Opinions?

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Take it out. In general, to me, things next to the edge draw my eye from (in this case) centered subject. There are other things you can do to separate this subject from the background, using some masking. Nice shot btw.
 
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Nimi said:
Take it out. In general, to me, things next to the edge draw my eye from (in this case) centered subject. There are other things you can do to separate this subject from the background, using some masking. Nice shot btw.
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Thanks, Nimi. I appreciate your feedback!
 
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Warren D said:
I'd take it out and place the remaining bird off-center to the right. In other words, crop from the right on your second shot.
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Here is another shot I had in the same sequence. 8X12 vs 16X9 and flying into the frame. I was going for habitat shots for each one.

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curtf said:
I have a different view .... try cropping out the left 1/5 of the picture and keep the clipped bird.
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Interesting idea, Curt! But even with that, I am still concerned with having the clipped bird as part of the frame. To me, it helps show a complete scene and lets the viewer know what is going on, but then some people really have a negative opinion about having a clipped animal at the edge of the frame. I will give your idea a try!
 
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I like this last one (in post #15). My mind conjures up a whole string of cranes arriving and these are the two leaders. The bird emerging into partial view seems to add a dynamic quality that the single bird doesn't have.
 
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John Woodworth said:
I like this last one (in post #15). My mind conjures up a whole string of cranes arriving and these are the two leaders. The bird emerging into partial view seems to add a dynamic quality that the single bird doesn't have.
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Thank you, John. I appreciate your opinion! There are so many ways to present a single photo!
 
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Since you are asking for opinions, I'll just say that the pic on post 15 looks very bad to me, especially compared to how nice the post number 6 post looks. That's just me, of course, but cutting an animal off like that really looks bad to me.
 
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Woodyg3 said:
Since you are asking for opinions, I'll just say that the pic on post 15 looks very bad to me, especially compared to how nice the post number 6 post looks. That's just me, of course, but cutting an animal off like that really looks bad to me.
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Woody, I do agree with you which is why I started the post. I wanted to see if it was just me or if most others would object to the clipped bird. It would have been a more dynamic photo if the second bird were completely in the frame and they were properly placed. But, based on other comments, people have different ideas of what they like and how many ways photos can be presented. Thanks for your input!!
 
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The clipped bird is large enough to be a distraction from the center of interest, which I presume to the the flying crane on the left. As others have said, crop the clipped bird out and crop the photo to move the subject so that it is about 1/3 into the photo from the right edge. (If the crane's eye is in the center third, it is ok.) Keep as many of the grounded birds as you can.

IMO, this scene would be wonderful depicted as you have done, in a panorama. One or two birds flying as the subject, and scores of others in a narrow band on the ground below them.
 
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Whiskeyman said:
The clipped bird is large enough to be a distraction from the center of interest, which I presume to the the flying crane on the left. As others have said, crop the clipped bird out and crop the photo to move the subject so that it is about 1/3 into the photo from the right edge. (If the crane's eye is in the center third, it is ok.) Keep as many of the grounded birds as you can.

IMO, this scene would be wonderful depicted as you have done, in a panorama. One or two birds flying as the subject, and scores of others in a narrow band on the ground below them.
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Thanks, Whiskeyman!!
 
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gaknott said:
Curt, is this what you had in mind?

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Personally prefer this crop b/c I get to wonder what else may be out of frame behind 2nd bird flying with the leader. However, highlights below are attracting eyes away from subject and dragging them off the frame so I would test 2 more post edit modifications: Darken the foreground a bit to reduce (not remove) the distraction (maybe vignette style); And possibly a little bkgd work but wait until the first issue is improved so you can see if that also affects the bkgd. If it did not affect the bkgd, a little more blur might help pop the subject a bit more and separate the head/beak better from the bkgd. Caution to not lose the wonderful colors in the bkgd while blurring. Then subtle lighting increase on the neck of the lead bird to better attract viewer eyes. In summary, notice how your eyes first go to the subject, see the highlights on the wing fronts, then go to the highlights on the wing fronts of the other bird, then get attracted to the all the white in the bottom of the image, then fall off the bottom of the image. "Reasonable" edits you can make to keep those eyes on the main bird is the objective. Disclaimer: All this is IMHO only and may be not at all what you prefer.
 
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jer said:
Personally prefer this crop b/c I get to wonder what else may be out of frame behind 2nd bird flying with the leader. However, highlights below are attracting eyes away from subject and dragging them off the frame so I would test 2 more post edit modifications: Darken the foreground a bit to reduce (not remove) the distraction (maybe vignette style); And possibly a little bkgd work but wait until the first issue is improved so you can see if that also affects the bkgd. If it did not affect the bkgd, a little more blur might help pop the subject a bit more and separate the head/beak better from the bkgd. Caution to not lose the wonderful colors in the bkgd while blurring. Then subtle lighting increase on the neck of the lead bird to better attract viewer eyes. In summary, notice how your eyes first go to the subject, see the highlights on the wing fronts, then go to the highlights on the wing fronts of the other bird, then get attracted to the all the white in the bottom of the image, then fall off the bottom of the image. "Reasonable" edits you can make to keep those eyes on the main bird is the objective. Disclaimer: All this is IMHO only and may be not at all what you prefer.
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Thanks for your ideas!
 
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It is hard to really see what is going on here without camera data for the photo. The two cranes look really good to me. I like to take several shots and attempt to to move my subjects a bit in each frame to give me choices to pick from. The background just does not look real to me. Something is out of whack here but I do not know what. Best I can do with what I know about conditions. Hope this helps at least to some degree.
 
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