05.02.2012.

TAOP Level 4.

Part 1.  The Frame.

Cropping.

The first of these pictures is of a group of children visiting a farm.  They were being shown a group of male calves that were due to be shipped off for slaughter.  I was trying to pose the question as to which group was observing and which was the observed.  The presence of the adults in the original shot rather spoiled this illusion, especially as one of them was smiling.  By cropping them out and tightening up all round I hope I gave the final picture more drama.

The second picture is one I submitted for the horizon exercise.  As I said there, the shot could take a bit of cropping.  I have removed an area of foreground as well as it cropping some of the rather featureless sea.  The diagonal formed by the dark stretch of beach now leads the eye up and across the picture with more purpose.  I also increased the contrast and slightly enhanced the colours.  It now gives a better impression as to how cold and miserable it was out taking the picture.

The third picture is one I took on the hoof at Hunstanton.  I didn’t have time to frame it but just took it as I walked past.  The scene is one of an elderly couple on the beech sheltering behind a wind-break.  They are facing away from the sea.  The man is stripped off ready for a days sunbathing but the woman is dressed up as though it was mid-winter, complete with raincoat and headscarf.  She is, however, wearing sunglasses.  The litter collector is giving them a long look as he goes by.  The whole episode was over in a second.  There is quite a bit of clutter in the original picture that required treatment.  I got rid of a lot of the foreground and erased the yellow no-parking lines.  The next to go was the open space to the right of the subjects.  I wanted the picture to have a little bit of the sea beyond the beach but still cropped it.  The final picture is a lot tighter.

I try to do as little cropping as possible.  The correct choice of format and lens usually get near to the finished product but sometimes it is inevitable.