Who are "they"? because nobody tells me how I must take the photos. Do "they" talk with a low voice in the night?... I don't hear them, I'm sleeping. I'll be serious now: Left has more "air" ;right is very hard, just a black block in the center of the photo... perhaps "they" are right.

i agree... left :]

Just an opinion - but to me, one reason to "cut" the top off of a subject is to give the impression that it "just keeps on going". There are too many visual clues in this case - the viewer KNOWS where the roof is going to end, and it's a bit disturbing not to see it. On the other hand, this may be the emotion you want to portray. Just my 2 cents. Wolf

I agree with Wolf.

I agree with them.
I also agree that empty space can be important.

Message edited on: 06/20/2004 20:59

Agreed with Wolf :-) Love the picture btw ;-)

Hmmm this is a touphie. And as had ben said to me the crop the tops of of photos profesionally all the time! If you want to emphasize the dreaded house in the middle nowhere. How about keeping the top space and instead cropping the tree in the far left off. That will make the house appear taller and more alone. If you want to emphasize how tall it is you could remove BOTH roofs. By the was what was your subject. Not to appear too stupid but I thought the idea of the cropping is to enhance the viewers attention to the subject and to enhance picture artistically. Personally I always try to put the picture in the center of the frame and I've been told that is a serious no no. However I hear the voices all the time! They tell me to call (976) type phone numbers to! Does anyone else have that problem? Bsteph

Misha - I think it depends on what you are trying to show with your shot. It also depends on the shot itself. What you are doing in the right photo is actually a photographic technique. It's called "closure". The theory behind it, as described by Gestalt Theory, is that the human mind loves to see patterns and complete things. You ever read or look at something and you realize a little later you "saw" something that wasn't there? That was your mind finishing stuff ... sort of jumping ahead and guessing before it got all the information. We just enjoy "finishing" stuff. When you use closure (oddly enough, in closure, the act of cropping that way is called "opening a subject") to compose a photograph, you invite the mind to be active in the image. It will also add a dynamic element to the what may be a static image. And the theory is that, in making it much more interesting to the viewer, they will look at it longer.

I don't think it works here because while you cropped the top off, you left the building centered. If you were closer in to the building, looking up more ... where it would look more forboding, more oppressive, more dynamic, etc. then it might work better.

-=>Donald

Message edited on: 06/21/2004 06:55

Neat explanation, Donald. Is that like those voices that some say aren't really there?

The change in the clouds doesn't help in comparing the two pics, and I have a feeling that there's a trace of barrel distortion in the RH pic, adding to the disturbing effect of the tight crop. Of the two pictures, I think the LH one is better. The RH one breaks the rules, but the results seems a little half-hearted. It doesn't manage to look more than just wrong.

I likely would have put the building, including the entire roof on the left, letting the "stormy clouds" make an emphasis. As done on the rh image, my focus is disturbed at to what I am looking to see. My eyes go back and forth and don't find it. Does that make sense?