B&W Pathway and cropping

neonpollen

neonpollen

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Name
Andy
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This is my first post in the InDepth Critique section as I'm unsure what if anything I need to do to improve on this image. It was taken a while back on B&W film, I printed it at my evening class this week and I want to use it as one of the final images in my project.

I really like the high contrast at the top while having retaining details in the lower portion of the image, what I'm unsure about is the cropping. My photography tutor says she likes it as it is and that I shouldn't change it, but there is something that just irks me about it, maybe it's the ratio of the height and width. When I have tried cropping it still doesn't look right I just can't make my mind up, maybe I should just leave it and know when to stop.

What are your thoughts? to crop or not to crop ?

Pathway.jpg


P.S.Excuse the quality of the scan, I only have a cheapo scanner.
 
Hi Andy ... well if we ignore the superfluous and rather awkward looking individual in shot ... the general idea behind the pic looks really good ... (y)

You have a great windy path running across a diagonal and into the shot ... plus an intriguing offshoot that leaves one wondering going off left of frame ... good stuff ... ;)

For me ... and it is a personal thing ... it is not so much about the cropping as about the contrast ... imo anyway ... :thinking:

The top left is far too bright ... almost to the point of being completely washed out ... whilst the right of frame into the trees is just far too dark without any detail whatsoever ... :shrug:

If you could rescue either end of those it will make for a much better solution ... presentationally ... all imo of course ... :D

HTH ... :shrug:





:p
 
Thanks for you comments, it's interesting that the three points you picked out (highlights, lowlight and the figure) were the same three points that my tutor liked about the image.
 
Hmm to each his or her own but here is mine:

I like the figure, kind of a person indecision at which path to take. But I think he/she should be the focus and right now the light on the left is fighting with the black on the right and my mind can't "see" the rest of the pic. Maybe if you lost the light the pic would be easier for the brain to decide to follow the path but I'm not sure.
 
Had a play, hope you don't mind, cropped, burned and duotoned

Pathway2.jpg
 
What PPP has done is what I was looking at, the sky was too blown out, and detracted from the image. And as the green one said there is no detail in the dark bits!

As for the character in the pic what they are wearing sort of detracts from the B&W aspect, its far too modern and out of character with the rest of the shot!
This sort of pic will however bring out lots of personal likes and dislikes...
 
just tried to darken the areas away from the character to concentrate the focus on him, needs more playing to get spot on but without original its difficult.

Also cloned some trees over to the right so it wasn't so dark
 
Composition is fine but the sky is blown out, and I also don't like that ruddy great tree/vast area of black that takes half the frame up.

ppp's crop solved that problem by cropping it off completely. Given thats its shot on film I don't know what else you could do...
 
I too think the shot would have worked better without the figure, the placing interrupts the flow of the path into the image.
 
Thanks for all your comments, I have to admit I like the high contrast in the image but I can't make my mind up about the figure. My tutor says the figure helps to re-inforece the tree as the focal point of the image but I'm not sure myself.
 
Easiest way to decide id to remove the figure, done on my original crop edit, a very quick removal

before
Pathway2.jpg


after
Pathway3.jpg


and for good measure the original pic with person removed
Pathway.jpg
 
I do like the version without the figure but unfortunately this has to be presented on B&W paper and I've no idea how to clone in the darkroom :)
 
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