Crop

This shot at the top is the full frame photo. The next three are all crops that I made with different proportions. I cropped them as an experiment, following on from to my last article on Proportions, Space, Framing.

You may like one crop more than another.

The musicians in the photograph were taking part in the Cambridge Mill Road Winter Festival. I was so intent on the two men in the centre talking to one another that I was only vaguely aware of the other two men.

If I had not only just bought the camera and if I had not been using it for the first time, I might have spent more time looking around for photos of the other two men. That said, the two in the middle were in conversation, and that drew my attention.

Seeing all four of them in Photoshop was the first time I saw the two other men clearly. I’ve noticed before that I can be very focussed and miss what is around where I am looking at something. I see it as a defect in being aware of the best shots that may be in the offing.

I remember Tamara and I walking past Charing Cross station when she pointed out three women right in front of me. I was so focussed on where we were walking that I failed completely to see them.

They were pretty obvious once Tamara pointed them out – three women sitting in a line on the station steps – in identical pink cowgirl costumes.

For the crops, I tried to start and stop the outer edges in the same place in all three crops so that they are comparable. 

The top crop is 5×3, which is approximately the Golden Ratio, then 4×3, and finally, 5×4.

Does one crop please you more than another?