Show Me How to....

[canonrebel]

Please show me how you would crop this snapshot.........

I know there is a photo lurking in this snapshot, trouble for me is I can't decide on a composition. I'm having trouble defining a focal point.

Please give me your opinions on how to crop this snapshot for best composition. There are some of you that are wizards at composition and I'm asking for your help.

It hasn't yet been manipulated.
Thanks

the Rebel

 

[photobug]

Well, this is all I could come up with:

 

[canonrebel]

photobug, thanks. I'm really appreciating your help.

I know I'm asking a lot, but could you try once more and keep in mind that I'm looking for an 8x10 ratio perspective. I forgot to mention the ratio perspective, sorry.

I can see at least one possibility in your crop. What do you think about the right half of your present selection? Would that work for a second possibility?

Reb

 

[photobug]

Yeah, that'd work. That would give you the tree in the mid ground, and a couple different looking trees in the background and leave you some sky to mess with.

Something like this:

 

[canonrebel]

Yeah, that'd work. That would give you the tree in the mid ground, and a couple different looking trees in the background and leave you some sky to mess with.

Something like this:

Great suggestion! That tree on the left that stands out in front of the green trees could be used as a focal point and placed in one of the 3rd quadrants, huh? wait! that tree is good right where it is, you've already placed it in the quatrant.

I doubt if anyone can find a better crop than this, especially considering the lack of something better to work with.

Thanks

reb

 

[Jeff Canes]

Cropped out the foreground because I found beach/landing area on the left to be unattractive, also rotated 1 deg clockwise

 

[pilgrim]

I found that there was just too many things just poking into the picture. Like the trees on each side, and the clump of grass on the bottom. I think I cheated because I had to do two little cloning jobs..
And I'm sure if I had the original sized picture to crop the image would come out at a decent size rather then so small..

*edit* looking over the picture again I think I went a little overboard
my vote goes for mr. canes remake.

 

[pigpen]

Photobug's is great!!!!!

 

[havoc]

There are alot of ways to crop this photo. My train of thought has always been to identify the main focus and get in as tight as i think i need. Then crop even tighter. Complexity can be very distracting in a photo, if you make it simple it will be more successful. (This of course is a general guidline not set in stone truth)

I had a couple of crops i liked for your pic. The first is myfavorite because to me it is whats really importantin the photo. That would be the near far relationdhip of the banks, and the reflection in the water.

The sky and everything else i think detracts from the photo, if it were a sunny day with some interesting clouds, i wouls have prolly left the sky in.
And since the hanging trees on the sides bother me alittle i thought it best to crop them out while trying to get the most of the water in there i can.

Here are some other more traditional crops though:

I like this one as well, it included the one tree in the background that is interesting.

This one isn't bad either, thought i think there is too much of the ininteresting sky. Using the trees in the sides to frame the image is a common practice and isn't unappealing.

Anyways those are my thoughts.

 

[havoc]

Damn, i guess Snap fish has stopped allowing direct linking...

 

[P Bailey]

Maybe something like this...

 

[bogleric]

as always photobug's rules.

 

[anua]

hey, canonrebel!
the first crop i've thought about was a 'pilgrim's crop' -
here are some other 'crops' :

cheers!

 

[terri]

Wow, this has been an interesting experiment. My vote would be for the top image that Anua did, the one that captures the reflection.

I agree with what Havoc was saying about identifying the main focus of an image and then zeroing in on it. It's a nice enough scene, but I think it lacks an easily identifiable point of interest (no major tree, building, etc) - but you DO have this very sharp reflection, which is nice. And Anua's top crop zeros in on that.

You could now further enhance the colors in PS and give it some contrast and punch, and end up with a nice image.

Just my two cents!

 

[canonrebel]

Thanks everyone for your help. Everyone is a winner. All the outcrops are portrayals of an individual's personal vision. As unique as the person to whom the vision belongs.

I realize that the original was hard to work with, it was nothing more than a snapshot that a ten-year-old kid could have done in 1954 with his little Brownie Hawkeye 120. It has low contrast and lack of snap typical of digital cameras.

But what if we had a negative to take to the darkroom and masked off the brownish tree that's already in the 3rd quadrant and dodged it a little to make it brighter than the rest of the snapshot. What if we masked off the tree and turned up the complimentary color of blue on the developer to make the tree appear slightly yellow? Or maybe turn up the green to give the tree a slight magenta appearance.

I'm starting to visualize a photo from this snapshot. Let' keep going, shall we? It might be possible for this snapshot to be transformed into a photo that would inspire a little emotion,uhmm...

Lets cut back on the developing time just a little to make the existing colors sharper and give the entire picture more contrast. We could dodge the sky a little to maybe bring out the cloud formation which is evident only from the reflection upon the water. Ansel Adams and Charlebois, look out--here we come!!

Wait, there's more..... we also have a negative of a full moon and a negative of setting sun. Which one do we want to use as an overlay?

Nah! we would've spent the best part of a Saturday afternoon mixing chemicals, heating them to the right temperature, color matching the color analyser with the new batch of paper, preparing a location for the print to drip dry. And then we'd have to take the time to cleanup the mess, dispose the unused chemicals, wash and dry the mixing containers. WHEW!! That's too much trouble for just a picture.

Maybe, we could just bump up the contrast and saturation a little in photoshop and maybe doge the tree to make it stand out more. The photo wouldn't be changed so much that it could still be recognized as a shot made with an outstanding magical camera used by an outstanding photographer.

This photo in it's present form is less than a snapshot. no matter how it is cropped, it's always gong to be mundane.

But can you just imagine how moving this original scene would have been had it been shot in full moonlight or shot at sunset?