Well, my wife and I had a bit of a debate on this. I liked some of these chopped face photos. My wife thought I should have taken the pictures with the whole face framed. I do have some like that, but I was not really happy with the sharpness of them, or the focus points... I also have the color version of 1 which is pretty nice too. She thought I should use color I lean toward 1, though originally liked 3, she likes 2.
We are both total amateurs, so i was wondering if you agree with her, or me, or neither and why?
I'm also more of an advocate of seeing the whole face of the dog in photos, with maybe one or two that are overcropped to mix it up, but not a whole set.
Agree with above comment that the comp in No.2 is probably best of the three.
The other two don't work for me since on one hand you want to crop so tightly that you're only including half of the face, on the other hand there is all that empty background space around the face that is taking away from the main object. Just my 2c.
I did a quick and easy crop on #1 by rolling the photo to the top of my screen and obscuring most of the area above the ears and I like it best. Having said that, I would like to have seen more of the dogs face. I think #1 just says "attitude" to me. "What are you looking at?"
Gregstx wrote:
I did a quick and easy crop on #1 by rolling the photo to the top of my screen and obscuring most of the area above the ears and I like it best. Having said that, I would like to have seen more of the dogs face. I think #1 just says "attitude" to me. "What are you looking at?"
It's a situation where if you know the dog personally and have a mental image of what the entire dog looks like these photos work fine.
But for me, not knowing the dogs personally, I'm left wanting to know more about them. The eyes and mouth are the part of any face that triggers the strongest emotional reaction. In that regard the first one works better for me because I can see both eyes and most of the mouth.
Context matters too. If the same parts of the dogs were seen peering through a hole in a fence then the reason the entire face isn't seen would be plausible. Here it just looks like a poor cropping decision if the intended audience is strangers.
I'm a big fan of "character portraits" and #1 really stands out as a "character" to me. It's got a candid feel to it and a perfect focus on the really intent eyes. The crop is strange, but it really works for me - keeps the eyes on the 1/3 line and even tho it's very "open" on top, the focus still comes back to the eyes. Cropping into a square by deleting the top is "OK" but takes a lot away from the shot.
This is a dog with an amazing expression!
NYC to Miami wrote:
I'm a big fan of "character portraits" and #1 really stands out as a "character" to me. It's got a candid feel to it and a perfect focus on the really intent eyes. The crop is strange, but it really works for me - keeps the eyes on the 1/3 line and even tho it's very "open" on top, the focus still comes back to the eyes. Cropping into a square by deleting the top is "OK" but takes a lot away from the shot.
This is a dog with an amazing expression!
Well, everybody made some great points. Cgardner in particular, made me think. However, I still LOVE this shot I am glad you are feeling it too
Just out of curiosity, would you keep the color? I felt the bandw emphasized the intensity of the eyes, and helped to off set the overexposure on his nose, but, the again, I love his color. Anyway, here is the color version: (I did drop the exposure a notch to eliminate the blown highlights)
BW.
While the color is pretty, and the background is interesting, it predominantly detracts and distracts from the subject. One of the situations where I routinely consider BW (and I do routinely consider BW) is when I need to simplify an image, reduce color distractions. You could experiment with selectively desaturating the background. Either way, I would crop this much tighter, half the distance roughly between the brightest OOF areas and the top of the head. And see if you can recover some highlights in his "cheek".
Scott
I like all of them just as they are. They present a refreshing perspective not often seen in photos with dogs.My dog gallery at http://rgthompson.com/p253365794 certainly doesn't contain such severe crops but you've given me food for thought. Thanks.
Best wishes,
Richard
I agree w/Sbeme - the color distracts a bit from the subject. It just works really well as BW.
If you're intent on cropping options, try either a square (will end just above the ears) or make it much tighter by cropping just above the eyebrows? See how you like them.
I lean toward 1, though originally liked 3, she likes 2.
