cropping

[arghman]

I need some advice for cropping, I took some pictures this weekend when the remains of the MLK-day ice storm were still around. unfortunately they are too "busy"-looking & I wish I had taken more closeups with less stuff in them

here's my favorite:

Comptonia peregrina (sweet fern)

some of the others are here: http://www.flickr.com/gp/23279995@N00/9F8LQA (the suffix c = cropped, the suffix s = resized for uploading to public forums)

any suggestions on what areas to crop to?

 

[forestgnome]

I can't comment on cropping on that, no strong opinion. I like the image and the subject. My only suggestion would be to use a smaller aperature so that everything is in focus, or at least the leaf without ice because it seems to be part of the subject. I wouldn't mind the branches behind that to be out of focus. I think the ice-encased leaves will still pop out with everything in focus.

I actually like the first image on the linked page the best.

It's a thoughtful image, and it's nice to get color in the winter

 

[Halite]

You've captured some nice winter phenomena with these pictures. The rich red of these leaves is gorgeous against the white snow. I really like the repeated curves and curliques of the three leaves combined with the sun glinting off the ice. That's really the subject of the photo. So crop as tight as you can to emphasize those repeated shapes.

I find the dark branches in the background distracting--especially the reddish diagonal behind the largest of the leaves, which leads my eye out of the photo. You may be able to apply a gaussian blur in Photoshop on those branches enough so that they fade from the picture. Otherwise, shots like these demonstrate the importance of moving around the subject and taking lots of shots, while paying attention to any distracting element in the background. Even an inch or two of movement can make a big difference in the final image when focused this close.