crop or no crop and why

[bribrius]

 

[waday]

IMO, no crop. I think the brightness of the sky helps to balance out the picture. I also like seeing the top of the tree line. Adding the top of the treeline makes it look a little more refined and planned out.

It may also be the nature of my work, but I often see pictures similar to the cropped version: where someone takes a quick snapshot of a river/stream for documentary purposes. The cropped version reminds me of those types of snapshots. A quick snapshot to show the bridge and existing conditions.

If I were to crop it, I would crop just a tad off the top and leave some sky in there.

 

[Didereaux]

No crop. To me the bridge is the subject and the stream is the eyes leader. So the bridge being horizontal makes a portrait crop seem somehow amiss, and diminishes the bridges importance.

Nice shot btw

 

[JacaRanda]

No crop.

 

[bribrius]

thanks guys. They start looking long i get real tempted to chop them off and had this one. wondered how bad it really needed the sky.

 

[Didereaux]

thanks guys. They start looking long i get real tempted to chop them off and had this one. wondered how bad it really needed the sky.

oh crappola! now I feel just plain stupid. I looked and thought you had cropped the sides! So my previous comment applies to that top largest(squarish) pic with the sky cropped down. I hate oldtimerz....it's so dammed inconvenient!

 

[bribrius]

thanks guys. They start looking long i get real tempted to chop them off and had this one. wondered how bad it really needed the sky.

oh crappola! now I feel just plain stupid. I looked and thought you had cropped the sides! So my previous comment applies to that top largest(squarish) pic with the sky cropped down. I hate oldtimerz....it's so dammed inconvenient!

lol. i have the opposite problem than cropping sides. i seem to have a preference for square formats and try to make them square sometimes even when the photo doesn't allow for it. so this means you actually like the crop, if i am understanding this correctly?

 

[Rick58]

Crop. Put the bridge in the upper left 3rd...Your welcome

 

[W.Y.Photo]

I'll start this by saying I am bias and hate crops out of the camera's normal aspect ratio.

That being said.. I think it depends on that you want the viewer to look at. The no crop version seems to be all about the bridge as the interesting elements of the forest and the half frozen river keep me moving my eyes around the bridge which in turn directs my attention to it. The crop version gets me stuck on the very intriguing ice formation around the river, if that's the point, great, but I barely pay attention to the bridge which seems to be the intended subject. The bridge is simply a nice background feature in the cropped version, the ice formation is simply a nice foreground feature in the un-cropped.

 

[bribrius]

Crop. Put the bridge in the upper left 3rd...Your welcome

well it is square. Not so sure on being best for the image but i do like square. i might keep a square version like this for myself and the elongated one, just because. i cut a little to close to the water pool i should probably fix that..

 

[W.Y.Photo]

the close crop on the water was the first thing I noticed with that as well.

 

[Rick58]

Nah, your first crop was much better

 

[bribrius]

I'll start this by saying I am bias and hate crops out of the camera's normal aspect ratio.

That being said.. I think it depends on that you want the viewer to look at. The no crop version seems to be all about the bridge as the interesting elements of the forest and the half frozen river keep me moving my eyes around the bridge which in turn directs my attention to it. The crop version gets me stuck on the very intriguing ice formation around the river, if that's the point, great, but I barely pay attention to the bridge which seems to be the intended subject. The bridge is simply a nice background feature in the cropped version, the ice formation is simply a nice foreground feature in the un-cropped.

well, the basic idea here is a simple leading line to the bridge, but the ice is rather interesting. I agree on the normal aspect ratio but i cant get my cameras to shoot squares. It is biased toward rectangles. i cant believe they didn't give me a square option.

 

[bribrius]

Nah, your first crop was much better

i know. i need to fix the water pool too. i highly doubt i cut that off in framing so i did something in processing. i need to go pull the original raw again.

 

[Didereaux]

thanks guys. They start looking long i get real tempted to chop them off and had this one. wondered how bad it really needed the sky.

oh crappola! now I feel just plain stupid. I looked and thought you had cropped the sides! So my previous comment applies to that top largest(squarish) pic with the sky cropped down. I hate oldtimerz....it's so dammed inconvenient!

lol. i have the opposite problem than cropping sides. i seem to have a preference for square formats and try to make them square sometimes even when the photo doesn't allow for it. so this means you actually like the crop, if i am understanding this correctly?

YES!!!! (the first crop) really brings out that bridge.