* Challenge #328: Creative Cropping. *

bathgate · Jan 20, 2022

Sorry for the delay in gettin the new challenge up. I had some ideas for it but had trouble sifting through the catalog for examples.

I really enjoyed jocksa's last challenge for his having us show before and after images from doing conversions. I'm borrowing that approach for this one.

I can't speak for others here but over the years, creative cropping has made, revealed and saved some of my better shots. This challenge is all about cropping. Show your original, out of camera framing and then show your final crop and processing of the image. The crop of the image should be an important element in your final composition. In my mind, it should "save" a bad or marginal image by making it into something eye-catching and note-worthy.

I wound up having a tough time coming up with examples but I'll post a few below that I hope will illustrate what I'm inviting here.

Please post the original full frame shot first and then the crop with each entry.

Rules:

This challenge will run until midnight, Pacific Standard Time, January 30.
Photos must have been taken with a Nikon camera.
You're allowed up to three entries, but create a unique post for each please with a unique title, please - and remember to include the original colour shot.
Images can have been taken at any time.
Enjoy!

Best of Luck!

--
Michael
http://infinitemonkeyphotography.smugmug.com
https://www.flickr.com/photos/62001028@N07/

Examples:

Eagle and crop:

Fighter jet and crop

Mountain layers and crop

Hummer and crop

Have fun everybody!

bathgate · Jan 20, 2022

I realized that most of my examples more illustrate cropping as an issue of reach -- simply putting more of the subject more prominently in the frame. I also want to look at cropping for composition, where the crop finds a "picture in a picture" and extracts it to create an entirely new composition. I'll see if I can find any examples but I think you'll all know what I mean.

--
Michael
http://infinitemonkeyphotography.smugmug.com
https://www.flickr.com/photos/62001028@N07/

George 68 · Jan 20, 2022

Hi Bathgate.

not sure how important it is, but this should be challenge 328.

mjevans · Jan 21, 2022

Interesting challenge. I expected to find a number of good examples that were not just "reach" but I've just spent the last hour looking through images I took last year and most of my examples are "reach". I thought I'd have come across a number where something got into the frame I didn't want but not so far. I have loads of images where I deliberately left space around the subject because I knew it would need the verticals correcting and quite a few which were cropped to 16:9.

I'll keep looking.

Martin

--
https://www.flickr.com/photos/martin_john_evans/

mjevans · Jan 21, 2022

A friend and I went for a rare photo trip (during the pandemic) in July 2021 to York. This is quite a historical image as it was the end of Topshop. I knew when I took the shot it was going to be a difficult edit because of converging lines and all the mess around the shop so I took it quite wide. I also wanted to make sure the hand written notice was readable.

View attachment 3102761

View attachment 3102762

I like the final result and it was just plain luck we were in York when this was present as it disappeared shortly afterwards.

Martin

--

martin_john_evans

Explore martin_john_evans’s 3,479 photos on Flickr!

www.flickr.com

mjevans · Jan 21, 2022

I went to York racecourse with some friends for a photography event which turned out to be rather disappointing (in my view). Whilst everyone else was listening to a talk on making more money from your wedding photos it seemed to me there was nothing stopping me wandering around with my camera. I got some shots outside of the race course and stands completely empty which I've done ok with in some competitions. This image was one I took inside when whilst everyone one else was listening to the talk. I took it because of the stair cases but when I got home I decided it was just too cluttered. When I came back to it later I decided it was worth an edit and I started by straightening the verticals. Then I found the chairs distracting and cloned them out. The desk and display on the right disturbed me so I cropped in from the right and I didn't like the column ending in the bottom and too much floor so I copped off the bottom. The last crop I did was off the top to ensure the lines met in the corners. Finally I tried converting to monochrome.

I like the result and it taught me to always go back to images which initially you think aren't worth any effort.

Martin

--

martin_john_evans

Explore martin_john_evans’s 3,479 photos on Flickr!

www.flickr.com

bathgate · Jan 21, 2022

Jocksa said:
Hi Bathgate.

not sure how important it is, but this should be challenge 328.

Aaaarrrggghhhh!!! Right you are. Dyslexia strikes again. Unfortunately, at a glance, I can't find a way to edit/change that. We might have to live with my mistake which I assume would only be an issue if somebody in the future were to search on the Challenge by number.

Let's make this simply one more reason why I don't enjoy hosting these challenges!

Sorry, all, for any misunderstanding.

I Beam · Jan 21, 2022

Michael

I suggest you send a private message to Mako who is a Moderator for this Forum.

I am sure he will be able to make the correction.

Mako

Regards

Paul

George 68 · Jan 21, 2022

bathgate said:
Jocksa said:

Hi Bathgate.

not sure how important it is, but this should be challenge 328.

Click to expand...

Aaaarrrggghhhh!!! Right you are. Dyslexia strikes again. Unfortunately, at a glance, I can't find a way to edit/change that. We might have to live with my mistake which I assume would only be an issue if somebody in the future were to search on the Challenge by number.

Let's make this simply one more reason why I don't enjoy hosting these challenges!

Sorry, all, for any misunderstanding.

bathgate · Jan 21, 2022

I Beam said:
Michael

I suggest you send a private message to Mako who is a Moderator for this Forum.

I am sure he will be able to make the correction.

Mako

Regards

Paul

Good idea, Paul. I just PM'd him.

bathgate · Jan 21, 2022

Jocksa said:
I doubt it’s important. Personally I’d rather you hosted a challenge with the wrong number than chose not to host one. You take great pictures, you’ll make a great host.

(I blush). Thanks for the vote of confidence! I've hosted a few before. My first problem is that I have a really tough time trying to come up with a topic for a challenge, particularly one for which I can provide examples. Then comes the judging, for which I always feel inadequate to the task. Unlike a lot of people here (I think), I have no art background and no training in photography. I wind up judging challenges pretty much on what I like which I've never felt was the proper way of going about these things.

But I do tend to overthink things. ;-)

George 68 · Jan 22, 2022

bathgate said:
(I blush). Thanks for the vote of confidence! I've hosted a few before. My first problem is that I have a really tough time trying to come up with a topic for a challenge, particularly one for which I can provide examples.

I didn't provide any examples last time, it didn't seem to matter.

bathgate said:
Then comes the judging, for which I always feel inadequate to the task. Unlike a lot of people here (I think), I have no art background

nor me

bathgate said:
and no training in photography.

nor me, self taught

bathgate said:
I wind up judging challenges pretty much on what I like which I've never felt was the proper way of going about these things.

I can't think of a better way.

bathgate said:
But I do tend to overthink things. ;-)

George 68 · Jan 24, 2022

Photographing bees in flight handheld is hard enough without getting your subject exactly where you want them, so a bit of cropping is in order.

--
“Stand in front of something more interesting.”

George 68 · Jan 24, 2022

Lots of my photographs are taken balancing precariously, or in high wind, or standing in water. I know the framing isn't going to be perfect so I include a bit more and tidy up in post. It's usually levelling up that's required. Here I wanted the water as a foreground but that meant it was dragging the sand away from the tripod constantly changing the angle.

--
“Stand in front of something more interesting.”

George 68 · Jan 24, 2022

After I'd taken this, I found the patch of "beach" in the bottom left distracted me so I cropped it out. I find the eye "settles" more easily on the cropped version.

View attachment 3102755

View attachment 3102756

--
“Stand in front of something more interesting.”

wjmjr · Jan 24, 2022

Edited to only capture the reflections in the pond.

Damnerd · Jan 24, 2022

crop with a little clone tool for wiring, disqualify or not?

--
Don
Downloading re-editing/re-touching of my images is prohibited without express permission.
Do you walk into an art exhibit or walk up to an artist at his easel and say "let me see a brush, I'll fix it for you"?
That is ludicrous.

damnerd

www.damnerd.com

bathgate · Jan 24, 2022

Even the uncropped version is excellent. Good shooting!

Christanne · Jan 26, 2022

2/2021: Cup and bowls on countertop. Black & White rendering made with the PSE 2020 B & W tool.

2/2021: Cup and bowls on countertop. Black & White rendering made with the PSE 2020 B & W tool. A Levels adj. layer was added to boost contrast. Crop close to original aspect ratio.

Christanne · Jan 26, 2022

View attachment 3102757

10/2021: Two plastic mugs. Originally entered in a forum Color challenge.

View attachment 3102759

10/2021: Update: for the Creative Cropping challenge, a No Restrictions option in the crop drop-down list led to more freedom in composing.

*** Challenge #328: Creative Cropping. ***

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* Challenge #328: Creative Cropping. *