Best way to crop this shot?

[Foxx]

Here are two crops I'm considering(and any other suggestions would be appreciated!)

Crop 1 - Full reflection of car. This one puts more emphasis on the car as the subject and the sky as the background

Crop 2 - Cut off at lights. I think this one gives the shot a more even mixture of car/sky.

What do you guys think? Which is better? Suggestions?

 

[EIngerson]

0CFDo-2 by Ingerson"PCD", on Flickr

 

[Don Kondra]

Cheers, Don

 

[EIngerson]

Nice Don.

 

[Fishpaste]

I'm partial to skies myself...

 

[Frequency]

I like Eingerson's trim job

 

[Don Kondra]

So, what did you decide ?

BTW - IMO both your proposed crops cut off too much on the right...

I would suggest the car should occupy about 2/3rds of the frame, the landscape the rest and obviously I found the tower/poles distracting

Cheers, Don

 

[fokker]

0CFDo-2 by Ingerson"PCD", on Flickr

No!!

 

[EIngerson]

0CFDo-2 by Ingerson"PCD", on Flickr

No!!

That's cool, but why don't you put the reason with it. "NO!!" is pretty much useless to everyone.

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

0CFDo-2 by Ingerson"PCD", on Flickr

No!!

Why not? It's better than poorly forcing RoT's. It's better centered than slightly off center which looks like sloppy center. The car is turning towards the viewer and doesn't need room to move camera left.

 

[fokker]

.

 

[fokker]

That's cool, but why don't you put the reason with it. "NO!!" is pretty much useless to everyone.

Sorry didn't mean to sound rude. I was sort of hoping it would help you to re-evaluate how you feel about that crop without having to say the reasons why I think it's bad, which are really just a bunch of 'rules' about composition. Rules aside, this simply looks unpleasing to my eye.

 

[EIngerson]

That's cool, but why don't you put the reason with it. "NO!!" is pretty much useless to everyone.

Sorry didn't mean to sound rude. I was sort of hoping it would help you to re-evaluate how you feel about that crop without having to say the reasons why I think it's bad, which are really just a bunch of 'rules' about composition. Rules aside, this simply looks unpleasing to my eye.

No sweat, I still like it.

 

[fokker]

Why not? It's better than poorly forcing RoT's. It's better centered than slightly off center which looks like sloppy center. The car is turning towards the viewer and doesn't need room to move camera left.

I don't usually go into discussions on composition because I make my judgements based purely on first impression aesthetics and gut feel, which can be hard to justify over the internet. This I did feel quite strongly negative about, and when I thought about I figured it probably didn't work because of the overly centered placement of the car and not leaving 'breathing space' for the car to head towards.

In regards to what you said about the car turning towards us, so not needing breathing space, is interesting and something I hadn't considered. I think though still a little bit more space at the left is required to make the picture look right, and maybe even at the bottom since that is where the car seems headed.

I would usually agree with your 'sloppy centre' comment, but I think cars are too pointed and directional to try and make symmetry of them in profile. Wouldn'tcha say?

Anyway here is my take on a crop:

 

[EIngerson]

I have to say I'm not a fan of the off center crop. To me it just seems misplaced.