Wompoo Fruit Dove Crops

[Ironwood]

Posting these pics to get some opinions on crops, what do you think works best here.
Here is the original file, uncropped.
Its not the best photo, as I was struggling with the AF on the lens at the time, so its manually focused , handheld and there is a bit of camera movement, if you zoom in you can see its not sharp. But for this exercise it doesn't matter, and it probably doesn't show viewing on a screen at this small size anyway.
Nikon D7100, Tamron 150-600 G1, @ 450mm, f9,1/200, iso320, flash/Better Beamer @ 1/4.


The 3 crops have had the underside of the birds brightened a bit and shadows reduced using Nik Viveza.

Crop #1
Portrait 5x7


Crop #2

Square.


Crop #3

5x7

[seaslug]

#2 would be my preference.

[Ironwood]

Thanks for your thoughts Greg.
I am usually wary of using a square crop, but I think you are right, it seems to fit the bill here.

[Normat]

#2 for me as well Ironwood. Try a horizontal flip to have it looking from left to right and see what you think. It's amazing what a change it makes (to me anyway )

[Ironwood]

Thanks Normat. I will try a flip, and post it here. Always good to have anothers view.
Welcome to the forum.

[Ironwood]

Here is the flip of version #2

[Grumpy John]

Hi Brad, good to see you out in the back yard and shooting again. I always get a lot of pleasure looking at your images.
The square version for me also, and funnily enough the flipped version appeals to me a tad more.

[Ironwood]

Yes, I think the flip might be more pleasing to the eye. Isac always says we humans view a picture from the left to the right. Is that at work here ?

[Isac]

Absolutely!!

[RossW]

Hi. For me its also the square crop & for some reason I also like the flipped version.

[Ironwood]

Hi Ross, thanks for looking, and chiming in. I am thinking that maybe with the flip, the branch and the birds tail are acting as leading lines to draw your eyes up to the birds eye and doing it from left to right is more pleasing to us.
What are everyone's thoughts on this theory?

[Grumpy John]

A couple of interesting articles.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/b...your-left-side

https://www.edge.org/response-detail/27154

[Grumpy John]

Another famous bird facing right. Sorry, I couldn't help myself.

[Ironwood]

Well reading those articles, you would think we would be more attracted to the original
Version, as it is looking at thebirds left side.
Being an NRL watching northerner, I am a bit unsure about looking at the RH profile of your Crow John

[Grumpy John]

It's not a bloody crow.

[Ironwood]

Always thought it was a Crow

[Gary H]

Being a Sydney-sider I would prefer a Swan (or even a Giant). Brad, not a bad guess, but it's a Pee Wee !

[Grumpy John]

Well reading those articles, you would think we would be more attracted to the original
Version, as it is looking at the birds left side.

That's exactly what I was thinking, but nevertheless an interesting read.

[Ironwood]

I think I am going with my theory about the leading line in the bottom left taking you from left to right into the picture

[seaslug]

I'm a bit beastly careless about which way the bird is looking. As long as the composition is done well the image is fine by me.

[Ironwood]

I had never put much thought into it before this to be honest, but when people started saying they preferred the flip, I can't help but wonder why.