Oat stubble C&C

[kanuski]

I took this a few weeks ago. Shot into the setting sun using a reflector to light her face. I am not sure how to crop it.

Canon T2i, 1/1250 sec, f2.8, iso 200, 105mm

 

[ronlane]

Personally, I don't know if it needs cropping but if you have to, I prefer the last picture better than the middle one. I think it may be because you cut just a little off her shoulder.

 

[Derrel]

I took a shot at it. I think Ron's right--the squareish shot above is better than the middle...cutting into the shoulder on the middle shot didn't help it that much. Here is my crop attempt. I only tried this one crop--there could easily be better ways to crop this shot.

 

[AlexanderB]

If me I'd cropped it square 1000x1000 with the girl's face in the center.

 

[kanuski]

I took a shot at it. I think Ron's right--the squareish shot above is better than the middle...cutting into the shoulder on the middle shot didn't help it that much. Here is my crop attempt. I only tried this one crop--there could easily be better ways to crop this shot.

Thanks a bunch. This looks great! I was worried about the landscape crop because most people on the group seem to like portrait format better.

 

[Derrel]

I took a shot at it. I think Ron's right--the squareish shot above is better than the middle...cutting into the shoulder on the middle shot didn't help it that much. Here is my crop attempt. I only tried this one crop--there could easily be better ways to crop this shot.

Thanks a bunch. This looks great! I was worried about the landscape crop because most people on the group seem to like portrait format better.

Well, that's an unqualified misinterpretation; the subject is WIDER than it is tall...she is posed lying down, and her total width is greater than her head height....she is also posed lying down in a field of stubble...she is placed in an "environmental portrait". The entire concept is that she is lying down in a wheat field...a big, broad, expansive field...she is placed into a landscape environment....she is wider than she is tall...ergo, the use of a horizontal camera orientation is a perfectly valid, logical, and also creative and elegant use of the compositional space.

Imagine if she were placed STANDING, upright, inside of a telephone booth. Would a horizontal camera orientation work the best there???

 

[ronlane]

Derrel's crop looks good. I was thinking something like this. I cropped the legs out because you really can't see them in the grass and I went ahead and put her eyes on the top third and left room left of her to get a good idea of the field.

 

[kanuski]

If me I'd cropped it square 1000x1000 with the girl's face in the center.

Thanks. How does this look?

 

[amolitor]

Derrel's got the right crop, to my eye. This thing feels crazy warm to me, I'd cool the colors down a bit if it were mine. Just a bit, I like the feel of it, I just thing it's a little overdone.

 

[kanuski]

Derrel's got the right crop, to my eye. This thing feels crazy warm to me, I'd cool the colors down a bit if it were mine. Just a bit, I like the feel of it, I just thing it's a little overdone.

I think I agree. This is pretty close to Derrel's crop with things cooled down a bit.

 

[Derrel]

"My crop" of your original does not cut her lower legs off though...I am showing her head to toe...major difference...

 

[Studio7Four]

Before I scrolled down to see other folks' attempts, my gut reaction was what Derrel showed. Of your original three I prefer the third. In that she is not centered (as she is in the other two), and you've left an appropriate amount of headroom and foreground (the stubble adds to the shot, helping #3 be stronger than #2, in which you've cropped out the foreground).

And Derrel is right that your latest crop (post #10) is drastically different from his even though the aspect ratios are the same. As D explained in post #6, your subject is wider in the frame than she is tall - but only if you include all her body. By cropping off her legs she occupies close to a square portion of the frame; there's no graphic impetus to go horizontal versus vertical or square. By going horizontal now, you have the left portion of the frame which is nothing but stubble - this really adds nothing to the shot since you've already got that information in the foreground. Had she been looking to her right (camera left) she would have been looking over that stubble and into the frame, so I wouldn't have minded as much leaving this dead space, but as she's looking directly at the camera the shot is stronger by cropping to include all of her body than to include the extra landscape.

By the way, I like the cooler editing. Good job revisiting that.

 

[kanuski]

"My crop" of your original does not cut her lower legs off though...I am showing her head to toe...major difference...

My bad. That was ronlane's crop. I thought it looked pretty good too.

 

[kanuski]

Thanks Studio7Four. This might be the final version. I have tried Darrel's crop this time with the cooler colors.

You have all been so helpful. Thanks again.

 

[kundalini]

"My crop" of your original does not cut her lower legs off though...I am showing her head to toe...major difference...

And with her looking straight into the lens, with her body splayed out to camera right, having her face in the top-left power point....... if you're following the R.O.T. thing........ would, nope has, provided a better flow to the photograph.