Help Me See - Two Photos for C&C

[AprilEye]

These are the same photo. The first on is in its original form and the second one is just cropped. In the original photo, I did not position it properly when shooting it and the top of the photo has such little space between the ornament and the edge. I thought cropping it might help with the subject distribution. Thoughts please peeps! Thank You!

1.)

2.)

 

[MissCream]

I would straighten it so its not on an angle.

 

[AprilEye]

Well the natural way the ornament is hanging is at that angle. It is actually resting on the branch below it, so the angle is the natural factor in the image. I'm just unsure if it looks better centered or with a bit of ROT applied... I can't decide :er:

 

[reznap]

The 2nd crop is better. The 2 strands of (garland?) were distracting, it's more balanced with the single strand on the left.

What I see mostly is a lack of contrast, about a stop of underexposure, and a too-warm white balance. The ornament doesn't really pop, needs some contrast. With the color and exposure corrected I did some dodging and burning to give the photo more depth.

Here's the result:

 

[Chamelion 6]

I think most of the corrections applied so far helped the photo. I think your instincts were correct, that the ornament needs a bit more headroom. While the 2nd is an improvement though, somehow it still feels cramped at the top to me.

 

[AprilEye]

I think most of the corrections applied so far helped the photo. I think your instincts were correct, that the ornament needs a bit more headroom. While the 2nd is an improvement though, somehow it still feels cramped at the top to me.

I agree with you - what Paul did was really help the photo for sure (Thank You) - but what I did is not pay attention to how it was framed in the first place when I actually took the shot. So... I shall try again!:thumbup:

 

[flyingember]

The 2nd crop is better. The 2 strands of (garland?) were distracting, it's more balanced with the single strand on the left.

What I see mostly is a lack of contrast, about a stop of underexposure, and a too-warm white balance. The ornament doesn't really pop, needs some contrast. With the color and exposure corrected I did some dodging and burning to give the photo more depth.

Here's the result:

it's possible nothing was white in that scene. why would you edit it to have white?