Sunset surfing at La Pared, Fuerteventura

[ancient_mariner]

Does this much negative space work?

Sundown La Pared by Toni Ertl, on Flickr

 

[philmarion]

Gorgeous photo though perhaps less of the rocky foreground as the eye is overly attracted to it and away from the glorious sun and surfer

 

[sirch]

I'd go the other way and crop left and top

 

[alfbranch]

Gorgeous photo though perhaps less of the rocky foreground as the eye is overly attracted to it and away from the glorious sun and surfer

My first though was this

I'd go the other way and crop left and top

Then I read this and see either works

 

[Peter B]

My first thought was maybe 10% or less off the bottom. It then gets complicated with Chris and Alf looking at a LHS crop, since I'd have gone for a RHS crop instead. This takes out the relatively uninteresting non-breaking wave, and gives more room for the surfer to "move into". The downside would be to make the sun and the surfer more centralised, but kudos for getting a fine shot that leaves you with such possibilities!

 

[ancient_mariner]

Thanks for the comments gents, really appreciate the time you've invested.

I've looked at the crops I *think* you've suggested using the white sheet of paper method, and while they all alter the balance of the image, for *me* the image loses more than it gains. Cropping on the left, if I HAD to crop at all, would be best. The bottom of the image was, for me, the most difficult place to decide where to stop, but I find the notch between the rocks is where my eye locates first before moving up, with the triangle of sun, surfer & rock giving a strong central focus and the long reach of rollers either side balancing each other and increasing the sense of space.

It's pleasing that there are different suggestings for cropping, because that suggests I've not overlooked anything glaringly obvious.

FWIW this was about as good as the sun got, and instead of the glorious sunset I'd hoped for, it just sank into a grey hemisphere & then disappeared into the mist.

 

[SFTPhotography]

I like the negative space - a lot don't think this way but you need the dead space for text. An image like this might make a few bob on a stock site like Alamy or Getty - and quite often space is needed for text or for someone else to crop it for their own plans.

 

[ancient_mariner]

I like the negative space - a lot don't think this way but you need the dead space for text. An image like this might make a few bob on a stock site like Alamy or Getty - and quite often space is needed for text or for someone else to crop it for their own plans.

Thanks for the tip Steve.