ish Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 I'd like some help understanding how to crop photos please. I took a pic today and I want to use it for my 52W4D pic - found 5 minutes where it didn't rain and had to make the most of it! This is the original This is how I would crop it, just because it looks better to my eye - no other thought processes involved! Can anyone offer some advice please? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Rusty Bucket Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 (edited) Rule of thirds, or golden ratios. ie imagine a grid over the picture that divides it into three horizontally and three vertically. so your focal point is almost exaclty in the middle of the picture eg the dog's nose. left to right, the head is in the centre. This, for reasons I don't understand well, is not considered "pleasing to the eye", as much as if you arranged your composition so that your dog's head was in the left third of the picture ie crop more off the left side. So I would crop so that the dog's ears were fairly close to the top of the picture and to the left side and have an equal amount of background on the left and right side of the dog, but this would bring the dog's face into the left top of the picture, and you possibly don't need as much of the foreground grass either. If the dog's eyes and picture horizon roughly co-incide with the top third horizontal line of the picture - bonus. and when you get really good at that look - you break the rule. however looking at that crop - the dynamic lines of the edge of the bush and the line of the dark bit of the dog's coat, tend to point to the dog's front feet. Which is not really where you want the viewer to be drawn to look. So a completely different crop with a line towards the dog's face would to crop close to the dogs ears, and left and right side of its face and then draw down and include enough of the rest of the picture to put the face in the top third of the picture - so down to the start of the foreground grass roughly. This gives a line made by the dog's right leg (the leg on the left in our view) towards the dog's face. Now if I could just figure out how to attach my versions to see if you see what I see... without loading into flikr And that is my completely subjective opinion - feel free to ignore. Edited January 12, 2011 by Mrs Rusty Bucket Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
persephone Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 Ok.. two suggestions from me .. cropping is not my favourite... I don't seem to ever get things where they should be anyway.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerraNik Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 (edited) Rules of Thirds http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_thirds A nice 'rule' to follow when composing your shots or cropping them down. Edited January 12, 2011 by TerraNik Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ish Posted January 12, 2011 Author Share Posted January 12, 2011 Thanks very much Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
persephone Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 I'm glad you asked that question... I found THIS !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
huga Posted January 12, 2011 Share Posted January 12, 2011 There was also a Rule of Thirds Challenge a little while ago: http://www.dolforums.com.au/index.php?showtopic=192738 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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