Exercise 14. Cropping

This exercise involved finding three of my own photographs which are different and look at each one individually for a different image that could be created through cropping and removing unwanted elements in each photo.  Therefore creating three new images.


I settled on these images, each different, and have made notes as to why I have chosen each photograph. This was much more difficult than I imagined it would be.  


Nepalese village close to Dhulikhel, Katmandu.

Fig 1 

Fig 2 

Cropping the original has created a photograph with a different perspective.  Less depth to this image and much less busy. A much tighter framing, created by removing and eliminating the dark perimeter of the original there is more emphasise on the Nepalese homes, their rooftops and the snow capped mountains in the background. 

Isle of Wight, Round the island race.

Fig 3 

Fig 4 

Cropping Fig 3, gave me an image that I was able to convert into a black and white photograph.  The cropping emphasises the diagonal and horizontal lines in the image.  Personally I now prefer this photograph,  although cropping has reduced the depth of the image, by removing other boats in the race, tension still remains in the photograph.  There is more prominence to the mast and rigging.  

Istanbul, city 

Fig 5

Fig 6 

Similar to Fig 1. I have removed all the foreground to create a cityscape of rooftops. This has given more prominence to the skyline. 

Moremi Game reserve, National park, Botswana.

Fig 7   

Fig 8 

The tight crop on this image creates a close up study of my favourite animals seen in Botswana.  There is a slight blur in his trunk due to cooling himself down.  Taking away the background and wasteland, still allows me to see his surroundings and environment, through the glimpses of scrub behind him.

French Pyrenees

Fig 9

Fig 10

This is one of my older images, taken when house hunting in southern france.  Just lent itself to being improved by the letterbox crop, again removing foreground, empty space.  

My thoughts on this exercise

Cropping gives more prominence to the image if unwanted elements are removed from  the photograph.  

This has shown me that I must be more aware of unwanted elements in a composition and eliminate them.

Remove empty space it will improve my photography.

Concentration and focusing on my subject matter will create more interesting pictures.