Exercise: Cropping

I have selected three of my images, first showing the original picture, and then the final cropped image.

This is a very good tool to perfect your final image but it mustn't prevent you from trying to get the best  shot through the view finder when you first take the photograph.

My first is a wedding picture, which when I looked at it originally, wasn't too pleased with.  But then the more I looked, the more I could see other images. I took two other images from this shot, ending with three which I thought were much better.  This is unusual to get three images and I cant say has happened to me before.

The second shot for cropping was one that I took at Kings Cross, it is of the statue, and it just shows a subtle cropping which really just tidies up your photo.  There is hardly any difference in the two but makes a better final image.  It cuts out any excess space above their heads and below the statue base.

The third picture I have selected is one that I took for the telephoto exercise.  This time instead of using the lens to zoom in I have cropped the image, giving similar results.

Exercise: Vertical and horizontal frames.

Some objects just suit to be taken vertically.  The objects just fit the frame naturally and doing so cuts out any unwanted parts to the picture.  The object is more defined and so you know exactly what the photograph is of.  I didn't notice that I sat the picture too low in the frame, not this time anyway.

On nearly all of my photos the vertical result was better than the horizontal one.  There were a couple that didn't .  The picture of the pub sign, it was a nice picture of the pub but I felt the sign wasn't prominent enough when taken in the vertical.

Also, the grave stone, I liked the vertical picture and the grave stone fitted the frame well but I liked the added foliage and church, and this time preferred the horizontal shot.

Here are my 20 examples......

Exercise: Positioning the horizon

There is a natural tendency to place the horizon lower in the frame.  I personally would probably tend to have my horizon just below central, although it would depend upon each different situation.

However if the picture you have taken or are taking has a dramatic sky or interesting cloud formation you may want to make the sky more dominant, lowering the horizon.

Alternatively if the sky is uninteresting and / or there is something in the foreground that you want to highlight then raise the horizon.

My pictures above are undramatic in all aspects and having looked again at them I would say I prefer picture 3 ( I also quite like picture 2). As the sky is so blue I would choose the slightly higher horizon to add interest.

This finally picture is very boring and uninteresting as there is nothing going on in the sky to interest the viewer.  In this instance you would definitely not have the horizon that low.