Which of these??

[Sahil]

Hi. I took this shot and am wondering if it should be cropped?



Cropped ones

[carregwen]

Well... the other buildings give it context, but I also like it cropped. I don't know is the short answer. I like the soft colours in the cropped shot. Might be tempted to lose those branches at top?

[Shadowman]

I would have to say that it depends on your original compositional scheme at the time you took the photograph and what you are trying to convey now that you have had the time to analyze the photograph. In the first photograph it looks like you were trying to suggest a contrast between the man in the tent with the building being erected in the background. In your cropped photograph it appears that the man is the center of interest. In the third photograph, your use of tone suggests that you did not want to date the photograph and make it appear that the image could have been taken during any decade. Could you share with us your intentions when you took the first photograph or what were your feelings about the scene?

[Nik]

i like it not cropped with your 2nd pp. the muted tones.
=)

[John C]

I think how you crop it depends on what you think the subject is. Is your subject the contrast between the hut and the buildings? the hut itself? or the people in the hut? I can see all three as possible approaches to the photo. I tend to want to crop it portrait (taller than wide) just outside the two vertical poles surrounding the entrance to the hut. This would also mean brightening up the interior quite a bit.

[Donald]

Sahil

I agree with the comments above. Your response to the question - 'Why did I take this picture?' - will provide the answer to the question you pose about the crop.

[Sahil]

Thanks everyone for the reply. Well yea my intention was to show the contrast between the hut and apartments under constructions. But the distance between them doesn't do any good to it. So thought of cropping it. Well I never thought of having the old man sitting as the subject, but the whole set-up. That is the hut. Its a small tea-stall on the side of a highway from where my friend bought his ciggies. Personally I like second and fourth one.

And making it taller would mean to crop out the plastic container hanging on the right side, which I find pretty interesting.

[Donald]

Well yea my intention was to show the contrast between the hut and apartments under constructions.

The point for discussion that this introduces is whether we think that an image taken for one purpose, that doesn't work as intended, can then be converted and become something else. I suppose it could happen, but I think it would be the very rare exception rather than the rule.

You had a vision when you pressed the shutter button. Is what would result from the crop, close enough to that vision to be acceptable to you?

Maybe, if you are able, a revisit to the location with more study to see what might be possible, would be appropriate.

[ScoutR]

Well yea my intention was to show the contrast between the hut and apartments under constructions. But the distance between them doesn't do any good to it.

Sahil: What do you think of something like this. I think you have Elements, if so, then just use the recompose tool. You will see a something like a crop box around the whole photo. Just grab the handle on the right and slide to the left. It moves the apartment a bit closer without distorting everything.
I messed up the cloning and colours (as usual) but my main objective was to see if the recompose tool could do what you wanted for this shot.

[Sahil]

Pretty neat that is, Wendy. No, I don't have elements.

[Sahil]

Here is the straight out of camera JPG. I have the RAW too, but too big to upload.

[arith]

That is very good Wendy; hope he doesn't have to pay any tax on that property. I prefer the one with the modern build in the image. Cheers

[ScoutR]

Pretty neat that is, Wendy. No, I don't have elements.

Oh, sorry, I thought you were an Elements user. What do you use for PP?

My favourite here is #3 with the toned down colours. I think the muted colours draw more attention to the man in the shack reading the paper which I think is a really nice shot. I see what you were trying to do with the original, but in this case I think the crop works best.

EXIF says you shot this at 18mm. I'm thinking if you stood a bit to the left (on screen) of the hut and zoomed in to 55mm, you could get the hut and the apt. buildings and at 55 mm the apartments would look much closer to the hut giving you the effect you were looking for in the original.

[Shadowman]

Sahil,

This is definitely one image where a notebook and pen could have been used by you to jot down your thoughts on the scene either before you took the shot or immediately afterward. Another practice would be to give the image a title, if you have to think to long and hard about what the title should be then you are not very sure of your intentions when you took the photograph. I had an assignment once where I had the option of choosing a humorous title and ended up with a lame title because I began to question my sense of humor while also thinking about the sensitivity of my intended audience. I could have gone with my gut feelings and alienated the judges or did what I did and lost part of the impact of the image.

Thanks everyone for the reply. Well yea my intention was to show the contrast between the hut and apartments under constructions. But the distance between them doesn't do any good to it. So thought of cropping it. Well I never thought of having the old man sitting as the subject, but the whole set-up. That is the hut. Its a small tea-stall on the side of a highway from where my friend bought his ciggies. Personally I like second and fourth one.

And making it taller would mean to crop out the plastic container hanging on the right side, which I find pretty interesting.

[Dave Humphries]

I'd go with what Wendy said regarding picture taking positions and focal lengths.

That's a neat trick pulling the buildings in (I can't do that in PSE6).

I prefer the muted colours rather than sepia or high stauration.

Cheers,

[ScoutR]

That's a neat trick pulling the buildings in (I can't do that in PSE6).

This is the first case where it actually worked for me. It can only be used on certain shots (unless you're a real expert at it) and if you go too far it will start to distort even on something like this.

On another note, this exercise helped me to solve another problem I've been having lately. The ugly colours. I know it was not like that when I saved it from Elements. I've had a few others like that recently, and figured either the computer was loopy, I had a brain tumor, or Elements and LR were displaying things totally different.

Anyway, I was working on another image right after this one, and the same thing happened. I played around and finally realized that when the photos are coming back into LR after being saved as a jpg from Elements there was a user preset being applied that totally changed everything.

I was not able to find where the program was being told to apply the preset, but it's one I made myself and I know I don't want it so I just deleted the preset. That seems to have solved the problem. I hope.

So Thank you Sahil, and I'm sorry about the mess I made of your colours.

Wendy

[Yan Zhang]

I read people interesting discussions here on this image. Personally I prefer the one with buildings, but as noted, they were too far away from the tent, so the contrast is a bit weak. Wendy's version is the best result based on what produced from the camera.

I think for taking photos like this one, we probably should have something in mind before hand, define a theme first, then go to look for the scene that best represents the theme.

[Ashwin]

Hi Sahil,

It appears that you are more confused, and not clear what your requirement is, and what you want to do...


1st What is the problem with the photographs you have taken, what was your pupose

2nd What you want to crop and why

if we do not know all this things, we are in the dark, what We can suggest unless your purpose is clear...

Anyhow here is my attempt to re-compose the original photographs

[Sahil]

Well Ashwin, you have really brought the building together. Thanks.
Well The first shot I took was just of the hut. I liked the small set-up. People sitting, chit-chatting, sipping their tea and selling ciggies and tobacco. Then I took a shot of the hut with the building in background. I wanted to take the shot from left, but guess what!?!?! I got a low battery sign. Shutter button won't go down ...
I already had re-inserted the battery (that lets you take 2-3 shots.) Then I had to leave from there.