Extreme cropping

[maclaine]

We've had threads in here before about who crops and who doesn't, and I tend to fall in with the no cropping crowd. However, every once in a while, I come across a picture I've taken where I think it works much better when it's cropped down to a very small portion of the entire frame.

Generally I like doing it with grainier images, as it renders the image with a kind of charcoal sketch quality. Portraits come out especially nice this way, I feel, as you can have a strong image and not be too concerned with ultimate sharpness. It also works better in the dark room than on the computer, as you don't have to deal with grain translating into pixels in unappealing ways. Most of my best examples are prints, but here's one I just scanned and like. It's from a much larger shot taken with my recently spiffed up Mamiya C330, an 80mm lens, and Tri-X. I would say this is about 10% of the entire frame. Overall, the composition was not that great, but of all the shots I took of this horse, this was the only one where he/she stopped eating and looked at me. I like how ethereal the motion blur and grain make the horse look.

Tomorrow I intend to print this image just as I've cropped it here, and I'm looking forward to seeing it on 11X14 paper.

Does anyone else have any images they've cropped way, way down?

 

[chrismoret]

For some reason I never use less then about 80% of the negative. If the image must be cropped more by then it has to go. But no cropping is the goal, although it is hard to live up to when doing things like streetphotography.

 

[Paolo Bonello]

I think also some cultures have smaller or larger personal space requirement. I see a lot of street photos from places like Vietnam that are virtually taken with the lens in people's faces and the subjects don't appear to mind cause there seems to be a lot going on in a small space and generally less inhibitions with having their image taken but I find that other cultures for eg. here in Sydney, if I point a 50mm lens at people I feel I'm at the limit of how close to someone's personal space is appropriate yet I'm almost too far away for a nicely composed street photo. Afterwards, I might look at it in post production and feel I could crop 10 to 20% off the linear dimensions in a lot of occasions.

 

[excellent]

It aint how you do it its' how you show it.