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Does this help prevent the dreaded crop?

N

nei1

Guest

Ive tried to emphasize the curve of the wall on the right by lightening it and upping the contrast on the top.Do you think that this helps to balance the image a little better without having to crop?Thanks for looking,Neil.
 
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Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
IMHO, not really... While the curve of the wall is interesting, the dead space above it is not. For that, you probably would need to compose so that you had less foreground, more dead space to the right and enough above for the whole pole to be part of the entire image, then accentuate the curve with dodge and burn... That would get the pole in the middle (and not not topped off) where it is less of a block to visual movement through the image, and then the boy and dog and curve become a more balanced triangularity of elements.

My .02 only,
 

Bob

Administrator
Staff member
I like the crops, but I would also brighten up the boy a bit for contrast.
-bob
 

TRSmith

Subscriber Member
I think I'm on the fence re: the suggested crops. I understand what's being said, but I think the movement in the wall adds some real energy. Any of the offered crops seem to make the whole thing static to my eye. In the end, nothing seems like the perfect solution. Unless it's in the next frame that we haven't seen! :)

Still and all, a nice shot. And it's totally your call since it's your image. Sometimes you just gotta go with your gut.
 
N

nei1

Guest
Thanks again for your advice,Im still hoping I can find a way to print it to even out the balance a little,if not it will be put away again.I have that luxury as Im not a professional and am probably not a professional because I think that way.The suggested crops do add the missing balance but also take something away,maybe the imbalance is somehow important.Even the wonderful Bresson has a cropped shot(the man jumping across the puddle is a horizontal shot where only a third of the frame is exposed because of a shutter error and was printed as a vertical shot)but Im sure you all knew that.All that I can say is that by digitising the negative and using photoshop to explore every variation is a massive plus and Im retrying negs that Id given up on and with some sucess.No worries about how much money Im throwing away ,just fantastic.Thanks again,Neil.
 
N

nei1

Guest
A print I made,trying to be a little more balanced,has been accepted onto the M analogue section of leica master shots at lfi.Im sure this does not signify much but at least Ive made the image acceptable.Thanks for the tips,Neil.
 
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