[Markulous]

Can't decide on this pic. Should I keep it as is or crop it (putting foal off centre)? Any other suggestions?

Day was full sun, not a cloud in the sky, so fairly harsh light but a great day for wandering down Offa's Dyke

[Dave]

Wonder if it would work better in tighter portrait mode

[sweet_sac]

I like this Mark! Excellent, crisp colours. Though the bud just to the left of the horse needs to go as its a little off putting.

I like it as is, I would need to see it cropped on the LHS before I made any decisions...

[Dave]

Alternative crop ....no idea where the colour went



Actually really like the original in it's own way

[Charlotte]

Nice one Dave Sorry Mark, but it's a huge improvement on the original, which hurt so much to look at that my eyes almost bled

Edit: That was a bit harsh, but you know I mean it in jest I just mean the colours are, well, THERE! My sensible suggestion would be to desaturate it a bit. Quite a bit. Well, quite a lot actually

[Mr Blue Sky]

fantastic photo , i think an off centre crop would work better.

[Charlotte]

Sorry Mark, I couldn't see past the bright colours, + forgot to comment on the rest of the pic ...

Well, the colour saturation was my only crit. Looking at it again properly, I actually love everything else about it: Your viewpoint is very effective; the DoF - love the blurred FG, again very effective; the pose of the foal + eye contact; + the overall composition - I'd leave the foal centre ... he/she is looking at you, not out of the pic, so I don't think the rule of "looking-into space" applies here. Again, the foal needs desaturating, as he/she has an unnatural purple tint.

The blue + yellow colours work well together here, because yellow advances + blue recedes, thus providing a pleasing sense of perspective, especially since the blue is directly behind the foal, thanks to your clever choice of viewpoint, thus placing the foal centrally not only vertically + horizontally, but also on the z-axis as well, tying the whole composition up very neatly indeed

Hope, by this proper critique, that I've now redeemed myself from my previous frivolity on your lovely image

[skipper954]

I like your original, Mark. I think a bit of a crop on the left would decenter the horse just enough to give some drama to the image.

skip

[Markulous]

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions - much appreciated!

Dave's B/W - portrait would look good but lose the blue/yellow.............?

Sweet_sac's tidy up looks good

Good, bad, indifferent comments - all gratefully received, Charlotte, (even ones that some might thing frivolous). Throwing around ideas is what it's all about! And your high saturation comment is true (albeit that was how the scene was..... and I like it!)

Concensus, with MBS and Skip, is that off centre would probably work better