RE: [Leica] Cropping and the whole damn thing [was: Digital cropp ing]

[Guy Bennett <gbennett@lainet.com>]

>Guy
>
>Thanks. I just spent time over the weekend in my darkroom. I printed 7
>different negatives. Spent at least an hour on each and several hours of
>time on a couple. They were all 35mm. I don't think that cropping improved a
>single image.


That's great - you obviously got it right the first time!


>[snip]


>I think there are times when cropping can definately change the look of an
>image. Again, I'm not saying it's bad. But especially after my weekend of
>printing, I'm sold that full frame printing is a most desirable goal. Now
>every time I crop in Photoshop I'm going to be asking myself, "Is this
>really an improvement." I don't think I can make that decision in an
>instant. Maybe if I hang both (cropped and uncropped) side by side in plain
>sight for a month I'd have a better idea. Aside from that, I think I need to
>trust my initial instinct -- meaning what I saw in the viewfinder.
>
>Dave


Those are very good ideas, IMO.

For my part, I almost never crop, but do not hesitate to do so on those
occasions when I feel it would improve the image, which for me is the goal
of taking pictures in the first place. If I can get it right when I shoot,
I won't even think of cropping in the darkroom. If the image could be made
stronger by cropping out some disturbing something, I would do so without
hesitation. Radical cropping as a creative tool is also something I find
exciting (check out the current, huge monograph of W. Eugene Smith's work
to see the way in which he cropped some of his PJ material), though I've
not experimented much with it as yet.

Guy