The Violin Player-What is the best crop?

[Curt]

I'm pretty sure Don covered it, but if you want a more expansive dissertation, you might try this.....
http://www.spacesyntax.tudelft.nl/me...0I/peponis.pdf

Oops... said Don, meant Chris. Sorry.

[paulwilbur]

Well I attached my take on the composition and crop.

Personally I would have shot the horz vs vert.

But that was your call

simple rotation helped a lot vs a crop


paul

[Frankie]

My suggestion, since you said that there is a possibility to reshoot the scene, try to completely include the whole violin on the next shot. That would make the image strong and with more impact to the viewers. Just my simple suggestion, Sir.

I'm going to add my two cents. I agree with Willie in that the entire violin would have more impact. But as a former violist (very much like a violin, just a little bigger), it takes both hands to play the instrument and not showing one reduces the act of playing. I hope that makes sense. If you can take the photo again, I'd suggest doing it and I look forward to seeing it!
frankie

[rpcrowe]

What bothers me with this shot is that my eye is drawn to the hand holding the bow which is out of focus and then to the boys face which is not in the sharpest focus. In this case the DOF was extremely narrow and it seems like the point of focus was the strings of the violin.

Here's a thought... IMO, bounce flash would have provided a different image by allowing a smaller f/stop and therefore a greater depth of field. I would have like to have seen an image wherein the sharp focus extended from the hand with the bow back to the boys face leaving the Chiristmas tree OOF.

[CBImages]

Hi
I agree somewhat with 'MiniChris' regarding the 'sense of balance' which is a result of the converging 'leading lines' within the image. I do think that a decent crop is possible - what do you think about this suggestion?
1) It focuses on the boy's face.
2) Removes the distracting background on far left of the image.
3) Brings the point of convergence for the 'leading lines' into the centre of the image.

It works for me.

Regards

Chris