Jess cropped

[travis4567]

[Digital]

Travis, very nice portraits.



Bruce

[Shadowman]

Nice set, I like the crops. Interesting that you left a portion of her garment in three of the shots, was this intentional?

[bnnrcn]

Very nice images, my fav is #1

[Texas Dave]

I really like the first shot the best and I think it's fascinating to see the subtle differences with just a slight tilt of the head and camera angle. The hair in the first really seems to frame her face, the tilt of the head is creating a nice look of her eyes and something about the angle of her nose too in the first frame.

[travis4567]

I don't have any idea where the fourth image came from..it was another photo of Jess.. How can someone hack into my posts??

[Manfred M]

I don't have any idea where the fourth image came from..it was another photo of Jess.. How can someone hack into my posts??

Travis - this seems to be an ongoing issue with Tinypics. Random images seem to get inserted into your post. Sometimes these seem to be just a local issues; i.e. some users see the proper image and others see the wrong ones. I understand this has been reported to Tinypics before, but nothing seems to have changed.

I've never had this happen with other image hosting sites.

[klpurkett]

Well done, Travis. My favorite is number 3, though they are all very nice. She has gorgeous eyes, and I really like how the light sculpts her face in the third image. Wish I could see the fourth!

[travis4567]

Here's #4

[Manfred M]

These crops are a bit unusual. The most common practice for cropping is to NOT crop below the hairline*, as leaving the hair to frame the face usually strengthens the composition. It would be interesting to see these images with more traditional crop to see which way works better.


* Note: This practice does not work for us balding folks with a "high forehead".

[klpurkett]

Well done, Travis. My favorite is number 3, though they are all very nice. She has gorgeous eyes, and I really like how the light sculpts her face in the third image. Wish I could see the fourth!

Ok, actually, now that I've seen the last one, that's my new favorite!

[Mike Buckley]

I like these crops because I like tight crops.

The most common practice for cropping is to NOT crop below the hairline*, as leaving the hair to frame the face usually strengthens the composition.

I'm not sure that applies to tight crops such as displayed in this thread. As an example, I just now went through a book of Arnold Newman portraits. Almost all of the tight crops are cropped below the hairline.

[Manfred M]

I like these crops because I like tight crops.



I'm not sure that applies to tight crops such as displayed in this thread. As an example, I just now went through a book of Arnold Newman portraits. Almost all of the tight crops are cropped below the hairline.

Mike, I am by no means suggesting this is a MUST do thing. Extreme crops tend to work as long as at least one eye, the nose and mouth are included. In addition, cropping to include the hairline often strengthens the image, especially in an extreme crop.

What I am saying is that Travis has some great images, but I think they might look even better with a bit more tweaking by changing the crop. In addition to looking at the hair line, I don't love the extreme left side of the first three images and wonder if an even more extreme crop right into the hairline might not strengthen the image; for instance:





I also suspect cropping above the hairline will frame the image a bit better and put a boundary along the top edge to keep our eyes focused on the face.

[travis4567]

Thanks for all your comments my friends...I really stepped out of my comfort zone with these shots. Love the infinite possibilities of our craft.

[jcuknz]

I find #1 and #2 are unbalanced while #3 and #4 are great ... but what do I know
I thought you were perhaps into war-gaming with the characters

[Mike Buckley]

I understand your thinking about the compositional benefits, Manfred. My comment was not in response to that. It was in response to your thinking that not cropping below the hairline is "the most common practice," when at least in the case of a master photographer portrait artist such as Arnold Newman, that seems not to be the case when he used tight crops.

[Manfred M]

I understand your thinking about the compositional benefits, Manfred. My comment was not in response to that. It was in response to your thinking that not cropping below the hairline is "the most common practice," when at least in the case of a master photographer portrait artist such as Arnold Newman, that seems not to be the case when he used tight crops.

Again Mike; it's not so much about the crop, but the whole composition. The fact that one master photographer has developed an eye that is so good that he "gets away with it" by no means suggests to me that everyone is good enough to do so.

I remember going through one of Yousef Karsh's books and counting the number of times he broke with compositional rules in his work, which was actually quite often. He is generally regarded as the best portrait photographer of all time. Again, a master who looked at the whole image as such, rather than a collection of rules to follow. He knew when to break them, and I submit as "beginners" we need to stick with them until we understand when they can be broke,

I also suggest that if you or I were to submit some of the works of the great photographers of the past as our own, we would be criticized for some of the things that they did in their work. Part of their "greatness" comes because they were pioneers in their field and we look at their work as a whole rather than perhaps individual pieces. I'm not sure if they would be looked at in the same light if they were shooting today.

[Mike Buckley]

I also suggest that if you or I were to submit some of the works of the great photographers of the past as our own, we would be criticized for some of the things that they did in their work.

There is no doubt whatsoever in my mind that you are absolutely correct about that.