How would you crop this photo?

The attached is the full frame. For a contest where the shot will be viewed on a high-res monitor where would you crop the shot?

I personally like it uncropped whereas Wakatobi likes the tight crop you see here: http://www.wakatobi.com/gallery/floating.p...%20Emailcontent

I have also cropped it to 8.5 by 11 and 8 by 14 for printing purposes.

To those who know about contests (I don't), where would you crop this shot, if at all

Regards,

Hi Tom

I'm pretty sure there is not just one right answer here. My first approach would be to see if I liked it tightened up to get rid of the over exposed, out of focus pink coral/rock. If you go that way try a little post drop crop vignette to darken the edges and bring the eye to the fish. A little cliché, but so be it.

I claim absolutely no knowledge of what works for contests. I'm just looking at it from a "What I would do" perspective. I would also assume that judges probably see tons of anemone fish images. I'm guessing it would have to be pretty spectacular to get their attention. Guess it would depend on the contest. In any case, I like the shot. How is it that Wakatobi used your image and cropped it to boot?

Cheers,

Steve

I don't realy think this could win a major contest. Several people do, however, so what the heck! Wakatobi is using a crop of mine that I use to print the shot. I gave them permission.

I like your treatment. How did you do the "post drop vinette'? I have never done that before.

Tom

I like your treatment. How did you do the "post drop vinette'? I have never done that before.

Ha! Should have been post crop vignette. Guess one shouldn't try to spell after the office holiday party.

It's easy in Lightroom, you just move a slider in the Effects group. I used -21 and left the midpoint, roundness and feather at their defaults. Adobe Camera Raw for CS5 has the same tool built in. Acts the same way. The new version in CS5 is a little better than the CS4 version. Not sure which tool you're using.

Cheers,

Steve

The attached is the full frame. For a contest where the shot will be viewed on a high-res monitor where would you crop the shot?

 

I personally like it uncropped whereas Wakatobi likes the tight crop you see here: http://www.wakatobi.com/gallery/floating.p...%20Emailcontent

 

I have also cropped it to 8.5 by 11 and 8 by 14 for printing purposes.

 

To those who know about contests (I don't), where would you crop this shot, if at all

 

Regards,

I played around with it a bit and showed it to some friends who judge contests. My best take is almost the same as Steve's with the exception that I cropped a bit more from the left and it ended up almost exactly square.

It is a very nice clownfish pic; thanks for sharing.

Bill

I kinds like the purple base of the anoneme so I left it in. I fooled around with Steve's vinette thinge (i needed to save in jpg and reopen in raw) and what about this?

My wife suggested something like this:

My wife suggested something like this:

I like leaving in the purple color and always, always listen to your wife.

Cheers,

Steve

I like leaving in the purple color and always, always listen to your wife.

 

Cheers,

Steve

Man, you got that right. A happy wife is a happy life!

Ok, but which crop do you like best? I personally think my wife's suggested crop is a wierd shape and seems unbalance. To remove the water avove the fish and obtain balance I would need to eliminate the purple anomene base. Choices, choices, choices.

My wife is a scuba diver and decent photographer (no you can't have her)

Tom

Hi Tom.

Personally, I like it uncropped. I like the extra color. Maybe just do a vinette on that corner, to tone down the brightest white as it reaches the edge.

I like the frame of color, below the fish.

Happy Holidays.

So far on two websites I have:

1-Two for uncropped

2-Two for the wife

3-One for my crop, however that person likes it very much

which, of course why I rarely bother with contests.