Cropping and extending

Exercise: Cropping

Often in the past I have had to see beyond a scene and imagine how I could frame it post capture after cropping. There have been instances where it has not been possible to capture the required image on sight due to limits in focal length or having immovable objects in the side of the frame for instance. At other times there may have been time only to lift the camera and shoot before the transient scene has disappeared forever.  Sometimes of course it may simply make better sense aesthetically to trim the edges off a frame that was previously thought to be perfectly adequate. Picture 1 is just such a photograph.

Picture 1 Full Frame

Picture 1 Cropped

Picture 1 seemed perfectly OK when I took it. However I decided to crop it a little as the full frame image looked unbalanced. The pathway didn't appear to go deep enough into the frame and there was too much foliage on the right hand side. By cropping as indicated, a considerable amount of depth has been added to the image. The pathway now draws the eyes of the viewer right through to the back of the image. This was actually my original intention but the execution was lacking slightly. 

Picture 2 was taken in a situation when I had time to literally just lift the viewfinder to my eye and fire off one shot. Tonle Sap lake was awash with boats in our immediate vicinity and this was the only chance to capture the moving craft isolated against the sunset.

Picture 2 Full Frame

 

Picture 2 Cropped

In this picture the main subject was captured precisely in the middle of the frame giving it a static look. By cropping out the left hand side and the bottom I have created a more dynamic composition, giving the boat an area of the frame to move into. I think this would work even better if I trimmed the top off also, creating a slightly more panoramic scene.

Picture 3 is an instance where limits of focal length combined with unwanted items at the edge of the frame mean the image is taken with cropping in mind at the processing stage. 

Picture 3 Full Frame

Picture 3 Cropped

In the full frame image there is a really irritating piece of string at the top centre of the picture. The tree stump to the right also competes with the fox cub for domination of the scene. By cropping inwards from the top right hand corner I have removed both of these problems in one action. The cropped photograph definitely places much more emphasis on the fox cub.