My preference would be for the second composition, Christine, though I might take a bit off the right on it. For me, the shaded bird almost disappears with the highly lit grasses and the very blue stump. Those colors might be how the scene was, but I think I’d reduce saturation in those areas and luminosity in the grasses and bring the woodpecker up to help make it pop a bit more. However, that’s just my take on the scene and I’m not the photographer.
I prefer the first crop, with less of the trunk showing, but maybe some off the right. Always nice to get a Pileated WP. Agree with Dennis’s thoughts and maybe clone out the yellow foliage around the WP. Personally, I’m not a big fan of watermarks-it’s subtle in the second one, but really draws the eye in the first.
Hi Christine - , if you have the pixels, I’d prefer a much tighter crop to emphasize the woodpecker. Your present crops have a lot of distracting elements for me - the bright BG, the bright foreground tree, the bright grasses.
The woodpecker itself is nice, but could use more detail in the blacks.
I’ve never seen a pileated near the ground, so this is an excellent catch!
I’d crop 40% off the right in the first shot, clone out the yellow flower and lighten Woody a bit. So now you have many more choices from us, and of course you decide which you like best. But such a great bird really deserves star billing.
