Exercise 14 – Cropping

For this exercise I’ve selected three images taken in the Masai Mara in 2002, using an Olympus E20.

 This group of zebra present a mediocre image – they’re lost in a big landscape.

By selecting a smaller part of the image and using a ‘letterbox’ crop, the group can still be the main subject, but a lot of unwanted detail can be removed. The crop can be tilted to make the animals fit the frame better.

The image is now much more about the zebra. They’re obviously still on the plains but without the distractions. They also look to be nearer to the camera.

This view of flamingos at Lake Nakuru has far too much going on. The eye is distracted to look at the birds in the air and on the far shore. The reflections look interesting but they need to be isolated.

Another ‘letterbox’ crop can cut out the distracting birds and shoreline. Again the image can be ‘straightened’.

With this crop the birds and their reflections are now the centre of attention. It has made the image less cluttered.

This group of wildebeest are lost against the sky, which takes the attention away from them. The slope on the horizon is also distracting.

With yet another ‘letterbox’ crop, much of the sky can be discarded, to leave the animals more in the picture. I tried a squarer crop, to include more of the sky, but it just didn’t work as well as this format.

This crop has taken out dark areas in the sky and foreground; The sky seems lighter; The horizon is now level and I think the image is much more pleasing.

 Looking for images within an image is obviously well worth doing. It can concentrate one’s focus and create more interesting pictures.