4 Comments

Not sure you're asking, but here are my opinions... My very first impression was about the boat. It is the center of attention, and the closer crop seems too close for it. It needs some headspace, room to breathe. To me, the only distracting element is the word "Hurricane." However, if you remove the background in the upper right corner (and maybe the ladder), the the entire background is cleaner. Oh, and it took me a while to notice the piling in the lower right, but now that I have, I see it as a problem. Too bad, because I prefer the left-and-right cropping of that image, relative to the positioning of the boat.

It's tough sometimes! I go through this all the time.

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Jul 9Liked by RWB

I'd crop your top shot even more, showing the wharf poles and the 2 boat names in the rear with your subject boat more centered. Then your orange man, red boat edge at the water line and reflections dominate for a clearer story.

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Jul 9Author

certainly a valid point of discussion but... I'd say that decision has a lot to do with size of the image when printed, what other images it's displayed with, and overall what the "exhibition" in terms of displaying this with other shots wants to say...

My overall style is one where I am not a big fan of compression and feeling far away, of course if you are far away you get that no matter what, when I am farther away I like to include closer things that don't feel as distant... I guess that's why I own a crap ton of lenses from 50 and wider and not many over that.

These are the kind of discussion that I think need to be had with others when making print decisions and what we focus on in our workshops. (I also am shaped in my own work based on a lot of design and print work where context of use is ummm, flexible (IE if I am using this image cropped vertical on a portrait oriented cover, or a double spread where I need negative space for textual content, etc, etc...

Personally I love these kinds of discussion with my own work as well as other people's work. It always leads to a better overall output. Context is key.

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.. there’s a ‘grid in my head.. sometimes ‘shots show me their ‘best comfortable roost in there.. sometimes i actually ‘recognize this.. may floof around for variations i may never be enlightened enuff to suss out.. but am a fast & instinctual shooter .. post production savage

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