To crop, or not to crop. That, is the question.

[Tight Knot]

Man in cotton field.

Hi all,

Here is a photo that I am showing both cropped and not cropped.

My thoughts:

Uncropped somehow gives the image more emotion, but cropped simplifies the image.

Which do you think is better, and why?

Thanks.

 

[tirediron]

Cropped, definitely. I would however suggest even more cropping; remove 1/3 - 1/2 of the empty space image left to get him more out of the centre of the frame.

 

[Derrel]

I agree with John--on the cropped shot, I too wanted to see less image on the left, to move him out of the central zone. On the other hand, I LIKE the sense of scale the un-cropped shot gives; for me at least, the wires running across the back of the scene give a good sense of distance, with the poles and wires giving me a much better way to gauge the size of the field. Also, the cotton plants, which I am not familiar with, have a better sense of expansive planting in the un-cropped version of the shot. Neither one is really better, intrinsically, but one or the other might be better for different uses. The one that features the man more close-up shows him more; the shot to the right is much more like what I grew up seeing in agricultural magazines ( my family was in the cattle business for over 100 years before I was born 50 years ago...) as a kid, so to me, I like the way the un-cropped image gives me a sense of scale for the field's size, and the cotton's planting density. In my part of north America, cotton can NOT be grown,and I have never seen it growing in real life. The un-cropped shot gives me at least a bit of a feel for how many acres (hectares) this patch could conceivably be.

 

[ronlane]

Cropped but as stated, with him out of the center of the frame.

 

[Tight Knot]

Cropped, definitely. I would however suggest even more cropping; remove 1/3 - 1/2 of the empty space image left to get him more out of the centre of the frame.

Agree 100% on cropping more (others I took where cropped like that, here I was just trying to get a sense of which image is better/tells a better story), but why do you fell the cropped would be better?

 

[Tight Knot]

I agree with John--on the cropped shot, I too wanted to see less image on the left, to move him out of the central zone. On the other hand, I LIKE the sense of scale the un-cropped shot gives; for me at least, the wires running across the back of the scene give a good sense of distance, with the poles and wires giving me a much better way to gauge the size of the field. Also, the cotton plants, which I am not familiar with, have a better sense of expansive planting in the un-cropped version of the shot. Neither one is really better, intrinsically, but one or the other might be better for different uses. The one that features the man more close-up shows him more; the shot to the right is much more like what I grew up seeing in agricultural magazines ( my family was in the cattle business for over 100 years before I was born 50 years ago...) as a kid, so to me, I like the way the un-cropped image gives me a sense of scale for the field's size, and the cotton's planting density. In my part of north America, cotton can NOT be grown,and I have never seen it growing in real life. The un-cropped shot gives me at least a bit of a feel for how many acres (hectares) this patch could conceivably be.

Hi Derrel,

Thanks for the detailed C&C.

You really put into words the different feelings I got (but couldn't verbalize) from both editions of the image.

This is also the first time I have seen cotton fields. I have a series of them showing the fields before harvesting, and then the fields with the cotton bales after baling. If anyone is interested, I will post them in a separate post (after pp'ing them)

 

[Tight Knot]

I like the cropped one more. But i can't tell why....
I also agree with #2 that you should crop more.

Thanks Jokal.

 

[Tight Knot]

Cropped but as stated, with him out of the center of the frame.

Thanks ronlane, agree that it needs to be cropped more, see my reply above with another shot already cropped.

 

[KenC]

Uncropped for the context. The cropped one, as said by others would need to be cropped more, but only if you wanted only a portrait of him without much context, otherwise the first works better.

 

[Tight Knot]

Uncropped for the context. The cropped one, as said by others would need to be cropped more, but only if you wanted only a portrait of him without much context, otherwise the first works better.

Thanks Ken. I agree totally with what you've said.

 

[CameraClicker]

If you want us to focus on the man, then crop it so the man is standing on the left third, looking into the photo. If you want us to focus on the cotton field, leave it uncropped so we can see how far back the field goes and the man can give scale to the height of the cotton plants.
Cropping gets rid of the wires.

 

[Tight Knot]

If you want us to focus on the man, then crop it so the man is standing on the left third, looking into the photo. If you want us to focus on the cotton field, leave it uncropped so we can see how far back the field goes and the man can give scale to the height of the cotton plants.
Cropping gets rid of the wires.

Very well put. Thanks.