Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/05/31
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 03:51 PM 5/30/01 -0500, Eric wrote: > >Jim Brandenburg's _Chased by the Light_ is >wonderful. When you realize that the 90 images were consecutive exposures >and he only had one chance at an image a day, it becomes mind-boggling. If >cropping from an image is cheating, is tossing out an image also cheating? >Why is eliminating parts of an image any worse than eliminating an entire >image? > >I think it was Robert that made an analogy between his photographs and >stones. Either it works or it doesn't. But if you chip away enough at a >stone, you can create something truly wonderful. Take away everything that >makes an image weaker, and you're left with a far better image! > >Eric Well said Eric. Now for my $.02 ! This is probably one of the most inane topics bandied about on the LUG. Cropping. If you have a paid shoot where you control all of the variables, where, when, why, who, how, etc., then after the shoot cropping can, for the most part, be eliminated. You crop in the viewfinder (usually ground glass) so that you get the highest quality original. But in any other situation, stuff creeps into the frame, you cannot move forward. You've captured a fleeting moment but had a 21mm lens on your camera instead of a 50. And on and on and on ad nauseam. The reason for cropping is extremely simple. To make a photograph, into a good photograph. To make a good photograph into a great photograph. To make a great photograph into a masterpiece. You fit what you have into what the customer wants. You throw away the excess baggage to present your best image. If you don't crop your photographs to produce the most pleasing composition and dynamic appearance, you won't have any customers. If your photography is for yourself, your friends will form an opinion about your photographic skills. An opinion that they probably won't share with you. When you look at people's photographs on-line, in a street fair, in an exhibit, in a gallery, you look at each photograph with a critical eye. Distracting and unsightly extra garbage, even extra blank space, extra blank sky or blank ground, will reduce the overall impact of a photograph. Everyone strives to compose and crop in the viewfinder (more difficult with a RF than a GG) but it rarely works out to complete satisfaction. There is always extra stuff. Attempting to never crop is an experiment in self punishment. Perhaps it has some teaching merit. Cropping is one of the MAJOR tools of a photographer. I SHOULD be used to create a masterful looking photograph. After you print your uncropped 7x10, 8x10, 8x8, etc., use your "cropping tool" to find the "real" photograph. Sometimes you get lucky and the whole is the part. But don't count on it. Many people print out beyond the film edge showing the film markings etc. This is both dumb and ugly. For pre-cropped proofs, OK. For finished prints, yuck! I have a Beard easel (English) which allows me to make black borders on 'from-negative' prints regardless of the cropping. But I mostly print Cibachrome which automatically gives black borders, with zero effort. They are just there. Nice medium. Pardon my shyness and I'm not singling anyone out as I don't know the origin of this insanity, but whom ever it was that said "no cropping!" "You must print everything on the negative/positive right out to the edge," in a photographic moron. Perhaps it was Boris Badanoff and Natasha! Squirrel must never crop! Squirrel must die! (old folks joke.) Jim