Composition Query: You Choose the Crop

by Aaron Hockley on April 26, 2006

Shot yesterday, a new angle from familiar ground… which works best?

  

I know which one I prefer and will post my thoughts after I hear from you. Comment away!

  • Brando_T.

    I’ll pick #1. The foreground flowers have a distracting effect that is minimized in #1.

    I’m not a photographer, however.

  • http://www.theboykos.com/nbrr/blog Steve Boyko

    I like #2. The line of bushes draw the eye toward the train without the train dominating the scene. #1 looks like the photographer can’t decide what he’s shooting – sky, train, flowers. #3 is OK but I don’t like the train in the dead center of the shot.

  • http://imaginephotographics.com Lorne Miller

    …hey there Aaron, I’ll go with #1, I prefer the simplicity of that crop, it still has a touch of the flowers to indicate the time of year you shot it, but they don’t overpower the composition…nice shot!

    Lorne Miller

    ps. see you in May

  • http://www.steveeshom.com Steve Eshom

    I like #2 because it shows the flowers a bit more and gives quite a bit of depth to the scene. It also places the train in a nice ‘rule of thirds’ position which removes the dominance of the sky in #1 and #3. Not that all photos have to follow the rule of thirds, but in this case the ‘rule’ proves itself again in my opinion. Now if only that MRL was leading…..

  • http://eldoradowestern.blogspot.com/ Steven C. Karoly

    It’s a toss up between #2 and #3. But I like #3 best because of the mix of blue sky with the flowers in the foreground. It makes for good balance.

    Steven

    PS–stop over and view the El Dorado Western Railway blog.

  • http://www.rnbphoto.com Robert Bryan

    Only #2 really feels right. Low and behold it follows the rule of thirds.

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  • http://www.myhdbox.com/ John Sturgeon

    I agree with a couple previous comments about #2, and the rule of thirds. I would add that another rule about the horizon never being in the middle of a picture rules out #3, and another advantage to #2 is that it gives your eye room to see where the train is going (granted it’s not going into the flowers, but it is more in the general direction of the motion of the scene than #1.) A better crop if you have the real estate would be take #2 and pan a bit to the right.

  • http://www.fireinthekitchen/kristy.htm Kristy

    I’m probably chiming in too late for you to discover this, but I like #2!

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