Close Crop - Photography Contest [40 entries]

The  immortals... Picture

Winning entry, with a score of:
73.7%
Contest goal:

The cropping of a photo can have a dramatic affect on it's quality, sometimes making the difference between a snapshot and a work of art. In this contest, perform a "close crop" on a subject of your choice. In a typical picture, we would see 100% of the subject. In this close crop, at least 40% of the subject (but maybe more) should be out of frame.


Required level: 5+ or higher.
Status: finished. Check out the winners below!
Suggested by: kyricom

friiskiwi: Nice idea, it would be great if everybody also posted the uncut version. ( 5 years and 2894 days ago )
friiskiwi: but of course, the cropping could have been done in-camera. ( 5 years and 2894 days ago )
Contest Moderator: It's not about cropping the photo but about cropping the subject in it. ( 5 years and 2894 days ago )
rbsgrl: How can you tell without seeing the original photo that the subject was actually cropped? How can you tell that the photo isn't just a close up or that it is cropped to at least 40% of the subject is removed? ( 5 years and 2893 days ago )
jerostone: Friiski is dead right. It is imperative that the original photo (the one from which the subject on display was cropped,) should be uploaded here by means of SBS, otherwise, imho, the contest, as per its guidelines, makes absolutely no sense. Please clarify. ( 5 years and 2893 days ago )
kyricom: You know? I hadn't really thought about it when I suggested the theme. I kind of wish I had now, as that's a good idea. Keep in mind, though, the theme doesn't say 40% of the subject should be "removed." It says "at least 40% should be out of frame." But, I think it would be cool if folks showed the original in an SBS. But, I just made the suggestion, that gives me exactly ZERO ownership over the theme. It would be up to the mods. (Plus, 40% could be out of frame done with your composition in camera, not just by post production) ( 5 years and 2893 days ago )
friiskiwi:
The cropping of a photo can have a dramatic affect on it's quality, sometimes making the difference between a snapshot and a work of art

this sounds to me like we should submit a photo, that has been cropped to improve it. And if so we should submit the original as an SBS ( 5 years and 2893 days ago )
FallingHorse: I prefer to crop in camera - maintains better IQ (image quality) in my opinion. These are supposed to be photography challenges rather than chop em up challenges
( 5 years and 2893 days ago )
Contest Moderator: Agree with Kyricom that 40% of the SUBJECT has to be out of the frame. This contest is not about cropping an image but about cropping the subject.
Posting the original image (if the cropping has been done afterwards) in the SBS is optional.
It is not acceptable to post a head shot and say the whole body is the subject, in this case the head is the subject and you'll have to show maximum 60% of the head. ( 5 years and 2892 days ago )
FallingHorse: "It is not acceptable to post a head shot and say the whole body is the subject, in this case the head is the subject and you'll have to show maximum 60% of the head"

Does that go for cats, dogs, birds etc - they have bodies too or does this just relate to people???

From the contest suggester "Keep in mind, though, the theme doesn't say 40% of the subject should be "removed." It says "at least 40% should be out of frame."

It really annoys me when the Mods change the goal posts halfway through ( 5 years and 2892 days ago )
dem90: Why is everyone cropping the photos??? close cropping is a term to describe a certain form of composition, it is not a post-editing process. Doing that only lowers the quality of your photo by pixelating it. By cropping out, essentially from what I'm seeing, 50 percent and more of your photo, and therefore, you are losing at least half of your quality. Anyone is just goes and crops a random photo, you are missing the point. Pretty much what you are doing is taking a close up picture of a subject, not cropping one. ( 5 years and 2892 days ago )
friiskiwi: Well the contest goal was, close crop, not a close-up photo. ( 5 years and 2892 days ago )
FallingHorse: My point exactly Dem90 - to me it is more important to get it right as much as possible in camera before resorting to cropping. But then I'm not really a fan of some of the contests that involve 'ruining' a photo such as the extreme contrast etc
( 5 years and 2891 days ago )
FallingHorse: Friiskiwi as Dem said: close cropping is a term to describe a certain form of composition, it is not a post-editing process ( 5 years and 2891 days ago )
Contest Moderator: After reconsideration head shots will be allowed as being part of the body. ( 5 years and 2891 days ago )
rbsgrl: The contest is about post-editing cropping, not close-ups. Seems oretty simple to me. Does it take away from quality, maybe or maybe not, seems to me that it depends on the original photo quality. Personally, if the original photo isn't in an SBS it will affect my vote drastically. ( 5 years and 2890 days ago )
kyricom: allowing full head shots is a cop out. Bad idea. It would be fine if 40% of the face/head are not in the shot, but saying the "body" is the subject is silly ( 5 years and 2890 days ago )
rbsgrl: Especially if the body wasn't in the original photo, which we most likely won't know because most are not posting the original in the SBS. ( 5 years and 2890 days ago )
rbsgrl: About.com: Definition: To cut out or trim unneeded portions of an image or a page is to crop. Cutting lines, known as crop marks, may be indicated on a print-out of the image or page to show where to crop.
Printing crop marks on camera ready print-outs is an option in some page layout programs. Crop marks may not print if the page size and paper size are the same or if the crop marks fall outside the print zone of your desktop printer.
One basic way to modify images is to crop them -- remove some part of the image. Cropping changes the appearance of photographs and clip art in order to better fit the layout, make a statement, or improve the overall appearance of the subject matter.
Also Known As: trim ( 5 years and 2890 days ago )
rbsgrl: tpub.com: Printing only a part of the entire image recorded on a negative is called “cropping.” Cropping is the procedure in printing used to improve the composition of the photograph. Most photographs are intended to present an idea or provide the viewer with some type of information. The better the composition of the finished picture, the better it communicates the intended message ( 5 years and 2890 days ago )
rbsgrl: So basically what I am saying is, after Googling and reading everything I can about cropping is that... When you crop an image or photo, you remove part of the image. I cannot find anywhere that it is a term to describe a certain form of composition but that it is post-editing. ( 5 years and 2890 days ago )
kyricom: Post production or in camera composition is kind of irrelevent as I didn't think to mention the original or an SBS in the suggestion. So, as always, we will vote on the final product. But, the question of allowing face/head shots bugs me a little, unless 40% of the face is missing. Saying the "body" is the subject and it's been cropped out to leave the head doesn't make sense simply because EVERYTHING is part of a "larger picture." If I take a picture of a landscape, with a house over to the left, people might say "oh, what a lovely landscape." If I crop out everything but the house, and they never see the whole, they don't say "oh, what a nice close crop." The subject shifts and becomes the house and they might say "Oh what a lovely house." Same thing with bodies and faces. If there's a head/face shot - 40% or more should be missing (there are a couple of nice examples in the contest). ( 5 years and 2889 days ago )
Contest Moderator: We are sorry for the confusion this has caused thus far it is now apparent that headshots ect. were intended to be off topic but since the contest has been running for 5 days we have to leave it as is to be fair to everyone. ( 5 years and 2889 days ago )
rbsgrl: kyricom, I do think the post production vs the camera composition is very relevant. A crop is a crop is a crop not a composition. Just saying, IMO. ( 5 years and 2889 days ago )
kyricom: Fair enough, mods.

rbsgrl - If I'm considering taking that landscape mentioned above, but zoom in on that house in the landscape, I have just "cropped" the photo I was originally going to take. but, even assuming you're correct, since originals or an SBS aren't a requirement of this theme, how would you possibly know? ( 5 years and 2889 days ago )
rbsgrl: I will send you PM kyricom. ( 5 years and 2889 days ago )
friiskiwi: The way I originally understood the goal, was take a photo, then crop it to make it better, leaving no more than 40% of the original, and if that had been the case we would need an SBS. You could have a shot of a landscape with a house in it, and decide to crop it to just show the house, and you would be on theme.
The way I know understand the goal, is to enter a photo with only 40% of the subject showing. So you can photograph part of a house, or part of a flower etc. No SBS is required as we will be able to tell that only part of the subject is in the photo. ( 5 years and 2889 days ago )
kyricom: Yes, friiskiwi... the second way (the first way would have been good too, with an SBS). The key word was "subject" ( 5 years and 2888 days ago )
FantasyFotos: How do we send a message to a contest mod? Have a few questions I'd like clarified, but I can't seem to find a way to message them or to reply to any sent to me already. ( 5 years and 2888 days ago )
kyricom: FantasyFotos - if you click on the "Socialize" link along the top menu, there is a link for "contact." The email addresses are there. ( 5 years and 2888 days ago )
Contest Moderator: @FantasyFotos: photomods@pxleyes.com ( 5 years and 2887 days ago )

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