Many horizontals
When I took photography in college (which was a LONG time ago!), my professor didn’t permit us to crop our shots: everything had to be printed full-frame. I’ve long-since abandoned most of what I learned in that class (Zone System, anyone?) but for some reason the Do Not Crop rule is nearly always in play.
But this shot – I cropped this one. It felt daring, like I was really getting away with something. But mostly it felt like I was improving the shot: I wanted to emphasize all those horizontal lines and the original version, which had the entire building elevation, wasn’t doing that.
Know the rules, so you can break them, right?
Lubbock, Texas
photographed 4.28.2013
Posted on August 10, 2013, in Photography and tagged 365 photo project, architecture, black and white photography, corrugated metal, industrial architecture, lubbock, lubbock texas, melinda green harvey, one day one image, photo a day, photography, texas. Bookmark the permalink. 22 Comments.
One Day | One Image 
In camera cropping is over rated, I agree. It was important because 35 mm was a very small film format and it was thought that you needed every bit of information in the frame. Later, I was taught that cropping is one of the most important aspects of processing and presentation. Film became finer grain and higher speed, allowing for cropping to occur without too much loss of quality. I crop ruthlessly when I think the image improves because the quality can be very much controlled today. Your photo today is an excellent example.
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I guess I should try to take a photography class every 25 or 30 years, whether I need it or not! But even before I read your comments (which were insightful; thanks for taking the time!) I’d posted ahead on the blog and coming soon (tomorrow!) is another cropped image. (I am trying to get over my cropping = cheating hangup!)
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I’ve still got (and use) my Pentax spot meter. I’m not giving up on the zone system just yet, nor the sunny 16 rule.
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“Sunny 16”! I hadn’t thought about that in ages. Thanks for the reminder!
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This is a great shot, though my eyeballs really can’t look too long without rotating in their sockets a bit.
I never learned the zone system, though I had Ansel Adams book on the subject (which I never did more than browse) and a wonderful light meter with zones on it that I wish I could find (dratted kids that take up photography, and take away gear) as it would still be useful sometimes (a Lunasix F).
I love cropping, do it all the time. Did not know that it was breaking the rules. So, I will stop now. Which means I have to buy more lenses. 🙂
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I know what you mean re. your eyeballs – this shot gets pretty jumpy after just a few seconds.
I got out my zone system calculator one time last year and couldn’t even understand it any more. I must have been a LOT smarter in college. Or something.
That no-cropping rule was just between Prof. Hilliard and her students. You are exempt, unless you were attending architecture school at Texas A&M University in the 1970s. However, if you feel the need to invoke the rule in order to purchase additional lenses, please do so.
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Well, now that we are on the topic, I am going one better than that. As it was my birthday yesterday, and being the recipient of a *very* generous folding present, I am about to purchase a small camera for carrying with me on may daily routine – I think its going to be an Olympus OMD EM5 with a couple of fast prime lenses (I spent a couple of hours fondling said combination yesterday in a camera store). Included will be a very thin 17mm (x2 crop factor = 34mm) which will be my pocket lens. No zoom lens, or that would spoil the excuses for future lenses.
We don’t usually talk gear, which is just as well, but I *am* looking forward to having a camera in my pocket, rather than at home weighing the house down in the event of a hurricane. I see so many photographs go by, and left behind.
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I love the phrase “photographs go by, and left behind”! Experienced that today.
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Yes – Ehpem has a very nice way with words….
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Aww shucks!
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Thanks for proving my point!
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Such a strong design element, Melinda. I think cropping is an essential tool. I use it to remove extraneous elements from the original (exactly like you have done here), but also to enhance composition, and concentrate the image. I’m all in favour of getting images ‘Right’ straight out of camera, but who said design always fell into the 3:4, or 2:3 ratio? Many of my images are square because that’s the way they are work, and many also are about 2:4 because in landscape that is how composition works best sometimes. The idea of ‘don’t crop’ is I think useful for students – it teaches you to think and fill the viewfinder in the best possible way. But like all rules that we are taught in the early stages, it’s one to abandon very quickly!
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Once I posted that one cropped photo, it suddenly got a lot easier to crop without thinking Professor Hilliard was going to swoop down and take away that A she’d given me! In fact, the very next posting after this one was cropped, and two more cropped images are in the queue. I’m a rebel!
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OMG, Melinda! There must be a med to treat your condition.
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Probably. But I think I’ll refuse treatment.
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Love the commentary on here! : )
I like the crop, too. It really does emphasize the lines and shadows.
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Thanks – cropping this was the right thing to do.
And I DO seem to have some rather verbose followers, don’t I?!
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They are always entertaining!
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Some (I am thinking you mean one)?
Verbose?!?.
Harrumph.
Surely you know that research facts combined with opinio can’t be rendered in a single Haiku, or other unnecessarily short form.
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What makes you think I was referring to you? There were plenty others that I could have also been referring to. And, anyway, the Research Department is – out of necessity – exempt as often there are lengthy amounts of research that must be presented.
Also: I wasn’t excluding myself from the comment re. being verbose. FYI.
And: I love it that you said “harrumph” – we say that a lot in my family, with a finger crooked over our upper lip to indicate a mustache. A certain member of the family (we can call him Larry) may tend to get a little cranky and when he does he gets harrumph-ed. Oddly enough, that usually tends to make him more cranky, rather than less….
And there I go, being verbose again.
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In my household, my having a moustache that I used to wiggle at the kids, the finger on the top lip indicates a hairy caterpillar crawling along the lip. Better than a harrumph, but not always all that amusing, depending on context.
Verbose is not even the word for it, when its your own blog. It is just allowed.
Cropping photographs is kind of like editing verbosity, when one starts of with excessive material visual OR textual.
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Well, I am glad we had this little chat. I didn’t know that “editing verbosity” was even a thing until you pointed it out.
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