Over the past few months, when watching movies, I noticed that
a lot of shots, especially tight head shots and
head-and-shoulders shots, were made in such a way that a portion
of the top of the subjects' heads were cut off. The more I
looked at those shots, the more it seemed that cropping in that
manner lent something very positive to the image.
A couple of days ago I received a copy of Larry Bartlett's book
on B&W printing, and observed that many of the portraits
exhibited the same cropping. Some were cropped in the camera,
and others were cropped during printing, allowing before and
after comparisons. In all cases, the shots cropped with a
portion of the top of the head missing appeared to be stronger
images.
How many of you head-and-shoulders shooters crop this way? I
was shooting the street yesterday, and decided to experiment
with that cropping technique in aa few instances. Damned if the
viewfinder image didn't seem stronger when getting in close. I
guess it allows for greater emphasis on facial features. IAC,
I'm going to continue exploring that technique.
--
Shel Belinkoff
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
My best work is often almost unconscious
and occurs ahead of my ability to understand it."
-Sam Abel; "Stay This Moment"
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