Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/08/12

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Subject: Re: [Leica] OK... I'll try this PAW thing
From: Martin Howard <mvhoward@mac.com>
Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2003 14:42:34 -0700

lea wrote:

> I like your image, especially your tonal range but found the darkness 
> in
> the upper left corner and the lower right corner very distracting to my
> eye. I took it to Photoshop and cropped it; you can see it here:
> http://www.whinydogpress.com/crops.html

I'm with Jack on this one.  His composition is more balanced, party 
because the patch of dark at the lower right balances the darker 
patches on the left, but also because of the more rectangular format.  
The cropped version looses this visual balance: the whole thing looks 
like it wants to rotate anti-clockwise.

Also: in Jack's original, the three dark patches surrounding the spiral 
create a visual tension that has your eyes moving over the whole image, 
taking it in.  In the cropped version, this has been disrupted.  
Instead, my eyes flip between the visually "heavy" left side, and the 
visually "lightweight" right side, trying to make sense of the 
imbalance (and failing).  I also find myself distracted by the large, 
featureless white area at the bottom of the frame which, in the cropped 
version, is not held together by the darker patch to the right.

Jacks image is one which I can look at in a more relaxed state.  My 
eyes explore the image, but do so with a degree of comfort.  In the 
cropped version, I find my eyes stressing back and forth, trying to 
make sense of it, and the experience is much less serene, considerably 
more disturbing.

It's amazing how much influence the simple act of cropping can have on 
an image.

M.

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