Crop me please

[Michael Lloyd]

I thought I would put up some Bluebonnets and let those that want to take a shot at cropping the image. I was thinking square with the small red flowers in the center and stuff :) The crop would be pretty tight but the sMKIII has a lot of room to play. I also shot this vertical.

1DsMKIII manual
70-200 f2.8L IS hand held
580EXII manual (1/8th power I think)

ISO 400 (oops)

f8@ 1/60s

[Julie Kenward]

Michael, if this had been my image, I would have moved a few steps to the right, caught the two tulips looking straight into the field of blue bonnets just to their left and eliminated the blank green space that is now immediately to their right. If you had stepped to the LRC of this frame and photographed them from that angle I think you'd have one sweet looking image right now!

[Mike Moats]

Hey Michael, I would have moved in close on those two tulips and used those as the main subject with the Bluebonnets adding a little interest. The image technicaly fine as it's sharp, but my eye just wonders around looking for some place to land, and I thinl the tulips or to small in the frame to draw my attention.

[Michael Lloyd]

Julie / Mike-

I was actually trying to do a "make this not so great image better with a crop" post. I've got better shots of the area, I was just trying to see if anyone thought that they could crop the image and improve it.

I followed Julie's idea and went back this morning to see if I could line the flowers up and get a better image to work with but no matter how I approached the scene there were large green areas to deal with.

The red flowers are similar to what we call Buttercups but about 1/2 the size of a Buttercup (1/4 the size of a tulip) so they aren't very dominant. The shot I posted was taken while I was laying prone in the road. The shots that I took today had to be taken while standing due to the foreground greenery.

[Desmond Chan]

The biggest problem, if I have to crop this to get something out of it, is the "empty space", i.e., the background near the top right hand corner, that has no flower. Perhaps some could do a better job but I was looking for a pattern that I could use but kept running into "holes" here and there.

Yup, getting closer (and lower) is the key :)

[Anita Bower]

I agree with Desmond re the difficulty of cropping this image successfully. I try to crop my images in camera. Even if I include an element I know I will crop out later, I think of that before I take the photo.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Michael,
I took a whack at it! Only cropped from bottom to a pano. I agree with the other comments above but as you said.....you took other images. I think this accentuates the flowers more.........whadayathink?
PS I knocked down the brightness just a touch too after crop.....no other corrections.

[Michael Lloyd]

I like it more than the original. I wish the area behind the pink flowers wasn't such a big blob of green but the "guy that planted them apparently likes it that way :)