{"id":399,"date":"2018-07-26T15:45:14","date_gmt":"2018-07-26T19:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/markbalcomphotography.com\/?p=399"},"modified":"2018-07-30T20:35:12","modified_gmt":"2018-07-31T00:35:12","slug":"a-bumper-crop-when-i-rarely-crop-my-photos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markbalcomphotography.com\/?p=399","title":{"rendered":"A Bumper Crop: When I (Rarely) Crop My Photos"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I usually do not crop my photos–or rather, I crop images in the viewfinder of my camera not in photo-editing software.\u00a0 However, a recent series of captures I made of the stump of a tree that had fallen in a violent storm, or due to the weight of snow or ice, or from a lightning strike yielded less interesting subject areas in the 2×3 dimensional ratio of my camera sensor as cracks and twisted wood fibers gave way to smoother or less varied surfaces or the ground about the wood.<\/p>\n

As a rule, I just don’t like to waste pixels from my original snap of the shutter. But, when the subject itself interests my eye only in a square or circular region as with these photographs, I edit as the image demands of me to use a square format for the finished results.<\/p>\n

With most any rule for composition, convention, or preference I learn or choose to adopt, there come times, once I’ve gained some mastery with my process, when I find the subject calls for me to ignore rules and forge ahead however the picture demands.<\/p>\n

Rules and guidelines are useful when learning something new. In my experience, they have forced me to go beyond my natural inclinations, or look at things in a different way–to create things I would not make without them. So I’ve found it useful to be an obedient student; and<\/em> to move beyond convention once I’ve learned a few things and formed good habits.<\/p>\n

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Another recommended practice I have accepted for myself is to photograph a subject in multiple exposures. The shot I like in the field is not always one that makes the cut in the end. Another angle, another side, changing light conditions, may make for an image I like better when working in photo editing software like Photoshop and other apps.<\/p>\n

I did that with these images; shooting eight or ten or twelve pictures; selecting these four working images in the end.<\/p>\n

All this aside, I won’t hesitate to take one shot on the fly. You never know; it might be a successful venture. So, be happy to snap away anytime.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I usually do not crop my photos–or rather, I crop images in the viewfinder of my camera not in photo-editing software.  However, a recent series of captures I made of the stump of a tree that had fallen in a violent storm, or due to the weight of snow or ice, or from a lightning […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-photography"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/markbalcomphotography.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/markbalcomphotography.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/markbalcomphotography.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markbalcomphotography.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markbalcomphotography.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=399"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/markbalcomphotography.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":414,"href":"https:\/\/markbalcomphotography.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399\/revisions\/414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/markbalcomphotography.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markbalcomphotography.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markbalcomphotography.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}