I agree with you, but I must admit that lately, I've been having impure thoughts ("Forgive me, Father, I have sinned. This month, I thought about cropping a photograph I took").
I was in the "never crop, it's evil, if you do your framing in the viewfinder you shouldn't have to, I wanna be like HCB, yadda yadda yadda" camp.
Now, were I HCB, I could get away with it. But I've recently come to realize that I'm not him. I've had a few shots that were okay, but when extraneous crap is cut out, or when I crop in nice and close - BAM! - everything snaps into place, and the photo now has ~impact~.
Part of that epiphany is that I've been shooting a fair bit with my rangefinder, and the framing just isn't precise with that, even with parallax error compensation. Part of the epiphany is that I've been shooting more street photography (with the rangefinder, mostly), and sometimes, to capture that "decisive moment" (to borrow you-know-who's term), ya gotta snap when maybe you're not close enough, or when it's not perfectly framed. Capturing moments is sometimes more important than perfect framing, I'm now coming to realize.
So, to sum up: try to compose in the viewfinder when possible. But don't allow dogma to cause you to miss out on giving a photo more impact. No one sees my negs except me and my lab-guy. The world at large is only interested in what my prints look like.
But, mostly, do what you think is best ~for you~.
cheers, frank
"The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist fears it is true." -J. Robert Oppenheimer
From: Keith Whaley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Cotty's November PUG Comments PART 1 Date: Mon, 03 Nov 2003 07:22:51 -0800
I always crop in-camera, if I can, before pressing the shutter. I know that for some shots I don't have a long enough lens, and some of those I'll crop (or throw away) but generally speaking, if I don't like it in the viewfinder, I don't take it! Tight is better, in most things.
keith
Cotty wrote: > > On 3/11/03, [EMAIL PROTECTED] disgorged: > > >Cotty, perhaps this invites a PUG topics - full-frame and > >you-must-crop... > > > >By the way, I'm experiencing now and odd pre-conception - that I > >shouldn't crop... Can it be that Honest Bill's honesty is infectious? > ><VBG> > > > >Bori > > O contraire mon frere. There is a big school who follow 'Thou Shalt Not > Crop' zealously. I can see the attraction of the simplicity and > photographic pureness this feeling engenders but personally I think it's > a bag of balls. > > What I do think is that each of us must find his or her own way, and > believe in it. Then can be respected. > > I may think that not cropping a shot after the fact is nonesense, but I > certainly respect people who do it. I'm looking at the finished article, > what is presented for me to see - how it was achieved is incidental and > anecdotal. > > best, > > Cheers, > Cotty
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