To Crop or not to Crop?

[Milan Vjestica]

I like this picture but feel something is not quite right.

What would you good people suggest for this picture? Crop, if so how, much and where? Leave as it is?

Feel free to have a go in the photographic sense. I would appreciate your comments.

Techy bits;

Nikon D300; Sigma 75-300 APO; 1/160; f5.6; ISO200

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Hey Milan - nice capture - you really got that kitty looking focussed

How about a 16:9 crop, loosing the distracting grass in the foreground, and filling the frame with the cat?

 

[Hamish Gill]

Square does it for me

How are you finding the d300 these days buddy
And the strap buddy?

 

[Paul Lange]

I think that the back of the cat is quite bright and competes too much with the face. When I look at the picture my eye doesn't flow across the image. I added a gradient adjustment black to clear at 150 deg and used multiply blend mode with opacity at 60%. It could possibly do with a crop as an extra tweak as well. Also possibly adding a bit of shine and saturation to the eyes?

 

[Glen Roberts]

I like the square crop...

 

[Milan Vjestica]

Hi Hamish,

Not many picutres the last few weeks. I was in the UK and Germany last week.

The D300 is great. I feel I get better images straight from the camera and they appear to be sharper. I have not used it since the Zoo pictures so have not attached the strap buddy yet. At present it has the Gorilapod bracket with level attached. I still have to get used to the settings. I took some beach photo's on a very bright day and really stuffed them up. Rescued a few in RAW.

The square crop looks good. It removes the least attractive part of the picture. 16:9 is also good. I do prefer the square though.