Getting back outside C&C

Derrel · May 14, 2014

frommrstomommy said:
the 2nd in portrait i really liked.. but i did quick random dimension crops for fun to give an idea of what id have likely done

View attachment 73931

I see the roadway as shown above ^^^^ as leading the viewer right out of the frame and to a dead-end... by cropping out a lot of the rural road, and bringing the bottom of the frame "upward", this type of crop focuses on the pregnant lady, and her friend or companion.

Showing two people, standing on a roadway, but cropping them off right at their ankles, is just not pleasing--it's jarring; feel free to cut them off much higher up as I did here mid-thigh, and then it looks deliberate. Leaving a LOT of top space and ALSO amputating two people at the ankles compounds the problem, and is very inelegant...it's just unforgivable from a compositional standpoint in what is supposed to be a peaceful and tranquil maternity photo; the ankle chop is simply jarring, and when there's a TON of empty top space, it looks accidental. What I did was to leave more space to the right, with a touch of roadway to lead the eye "into the shot", and her friend in blue denim on the left, close to the frame edge on her side to visually "buttress" or "support" her friend in white. It's deliberately a bit off-centered, but it balances, and has a hint of dynamic feeling to it cropped this way. With their combined line of gaze being right-ward, there needs to be more space to the RIGHT, to make the line of gaze appear rational and well thought out. Leaving a huge amount of space to the left, with them looking to the right looks "unstudied".

You can also see that by framing two standing women with a "taller" framing, that their head size is a little bit more than doubled, so that their expressions can be seen better.

robbins.photo · May 14, 2014

CorrieMichael said:
I mean to be honest with myself I think I have always struggled with composition thinking I had done not too bad and maybe need to do something more with it. Something I have to work on and go forward with. I know the client will be happy with both but wanted some critique and I got it!

Well both images do have strong points as well so whatever you do don't get discouraged. When it comes to cropping people my general rule of thumb is to try to avoid cropping near a joint. So if your cropping say between the wrist and the elbow, try to get about halfway in between the two if you can - if your cropping legs try to go somewhere about halfway between the ankle and the knee, or halfway between the knee and the hip, that sort of thing. It makes it appear that the crop was intentional and there are no missing body parts involved.. lol.

As someone else mentioned shooting in vertical can make a big difference particularly in shots where the background really doesn't add much to the overall image. It puts more emphasis on your subject and less on the background, which generally makes the photo a stronger and more appealing to a wider audience.

Really in the final analysis if the client is happy, that's all that really matters.