I am a believer in cropping images if needed. I know, many purists believe that cropping represents a failure to compose properly. However, if you think back to when cameras had primitive means of framing (think sports finders on folding medium format cameras), it would be nearly inevitable that you need to crop sometimes.
Here's an example where I think a crop may make the image more interesting. Let's start with the full image.
Old Truck, Key West, by Reed A. George
Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX1, Lumix 20mm f1.7 Lens
iso 200, f5.6, 1/1250 sec
I kind of like this shot. I think the full image shows enough of the truck body, even a little of the steering wheel, to provide context; you know it's a truck.
Now, here's a crop:
Cropped
Actually, an even tighter crop really shows the cracks in a more dramatic way, but I settled for this compromise between a complete abstract of just the cracks, and the wider shot above.
Which do you like best?
I did finally shoot my Lumix DMC-GX1 a little on my trip to Key West. It's a wonderful little camera.
DMC-365.blogspot.com
DMC-GX1 for an unbelievably low price at Amazon:
Hi George, for me is not a "purist" issue... When I started my little b/w project one of the rules was "not cropping", just to put me in the situation that I had to compose VERY carefully to have a keeper... And one year later, I found that now my rates of keepers is much much higher. Think that just as training...
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