crop assistance - DPChallenge Forums

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

06/09/2007 09:31:17 AM · #1

OK. So I'm editing these shots of this show that the students at the UNI did. really quite impressive considering they just went at doing everything themselves with very little direction...

Anyhow, there's this one pic I just cannot get my head around for the crop. Action was pretty quick and light is never great with these sorts of things... and there's a girl who I didn't really get a lot of good shots of. I think this is one of the better shots of her in the play and I am DEEPLY disappointed in myself that I snipped just a bit too much off of the shoe...

I would really love to hear how you all would crop this to make it work.

Feel free to do anything you like, including rotation and extreme cropping. I will mirror and re-post if needed.

Currently, I am sorting in DPP, so there is plenty of room to move on the shot. The original is a bit soft and a bit noisy too, so I can't crop in tooooo close without mucking things up a bit.

violinist123

Canon EOS-6D

06/09/2007 09:38:48 AM · #2

The leg makes the shot, it has to stay. Bummer part of the shoe got clipped off. If the leg stays and you are going for 3:2 print, there's really only one crop I can see.

edit: i see 'extreme crops' allowed so no need for the standard ratio... Still I would personally go with this, boring as it is.

Message edited by author 2007-06-09 09:40:47.

sherpet

Canon EOS-350D Rebel XT

Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM

06/09/2007 09:47:09 AM · #3

Both image are by

eschelar and I only cropped and added borders re the request of

eschelar above.

I had a play and quite like both of these.

Message edited by author 2007-06-09 09:59:11.

06/09/2007 09:48:38 AM · #4

That's about what I would go with too sadly...

The pic was uploaded without any cropping from the original to give room to play. Got no ideas myself. damn my hastiness

Speaking of which... EDIT:

I like those too sherp. I am thinking now about doing a stripe or a fine cross-hatch in the border to dazzle the eye and get it off of her foot.... hrmmm. Thinking now... I also like the idea of bringing the crop in to cut off her hair to visually endcap...

Boy I sure wish I had more time for this. This play was done by fourth year students who will be graduating in two weeks. I have finals as do they.

Got some disturbing hard drive errors just now too. Whee.

Message edited by author 2007-06-09 09:54:18.

06/09/2007 11:10:40 AM · #5

bumpity.

idnic

Canon EOS-60D

Sony 24-70mm F4 Vario-Tessar T* FE OSS

06/09/2007 11:25:21 AM · #6

I played around with it for a few minutes and couldn't find a crop that didn't leave the girl right in the center of the composition. Shame there isn't a bit of wiggle room. I like Sherpet's white framed version.

PS - When I first clicked the link I was afraid someone was asking about gardening. lol

Bear_Music

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

06/09/2007 12:49:31 PM · #7

This is done very quickly, so it's not flawless; there'd be no point, since eschelar has the original to work with. But it's not that big a deal to add more wall to the right and then clone the completion of the shoe:

ursula

Fujifilm X-T2

Fujifilm XF 55-200mm f/3.5-4.8 R LM OIS

06/09/2007 12:56:55 PM · #8

First thing that came to mind. :)

aliqui

Nikon D300s

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II

06/09/2007 12:57:17 PM · #9

Originally posted by Bear_Music:

Cheater, heh.

tonyv

Canon EOS-400D Rebel XTi

Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM

06/09/2007 04:12:04 PM · #10

Originally posted by Bear_Music:

This is what I would have done. Have you got another picture of her shoes? Steal the heel from there. It will give the shape. And then light to your hearts content.

bdenny

Sony DSC-H5

06/09/2007 05:04:10 PM · #11

Definately have to agree that it would be worth the effort to complete the shoe. I like

sherpet's crop with the black bars.

suemack

Canon EOS-20D

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS

06/09/2007 08:49:45 PM · #12

I really like Ursula's crop, it puts the focus on the people

and Shez's crop with the border

Sigma 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 Aspherical HF for Canon

06/09/2007 10:03:29 PM · #13

Thanks all. I will put three versions together. Something a bit like Sherpet's, and something like bear's (I think I will add vignette to draw attention away from the edges too...) and I had already planned to do something like Ursula's as plan B for if nothing worked out....

thanks again all.

Will post later... I expect to finish this in about three days or so. I will be setting up a batch to run on nearly 800 images, which will probably take my computer around 40 hours to run.

klstover

Panasonic DMC-FZ8

06/10/2007 05:53:01 AM · #14

Well here goes me with the "extreme crops".
I know your last post said you've got something already (they both require cloning, too, so that's maybe not the best thing) but I wanted to join in the fun even if you didn't need it anymore.

The first one was a weird idea that doesn't really seem to work at all. I think the vertical letters really throw it off. But I think the second one is kinda neat.

edit: Wow, the more I look at the first one, the more hideous it looks to me.. LOL!

Message edited by author 2007-06-10 06:04:29.

ssodell

Canon EOS-300D Rebel

06/10/2007 06:04:53 AM · #15

This one is really good. Nice work

klstover

Originally posted by klstover:

06/10/2007 11:49:03 AM · #16

heh. thanks for the time klstover.. I'm probably not going to go that far, but I've been considering a 2-10 degree rotate clockwise... in the back of my mind anyhow...

I'll play with it once the curves/sharpening/color batch is done. And probably after my final is done on tuesday too.

maybe I could just do a series of 36 frames of 10 degree increments and use it as a stitched circular border then spherize it... tee hee :)

06/20/2007 05:03:35 AM · #17

Ok, thanks to all for the suggestions.

i think I would have gone with Sherpets ideas had I not encountered the excellent suggestions from Bear and TonyV. I did have another shoe in another pic. used rectangle marquee, free transform, perspective and a few other toys in the Photoshop toybox to adapt the heel to the other pic, then blurred it.

I decided to use vignette instead of the white-black border. this is mostly because I have done a handful of other shots with vignette for the other parts of the show, so it seems appropriate.

Having lots of fun working this show. So far about 50% of the way through the Tres Sombreros de Copa. That's 130 pics in 3 hours, with a few processed quite carefully.

I have printed a couple so far and both have been fairly well received. Because I am still learning my printer, I am charging only to cover the cost of materials (about $3.50 a print), and allowing the students to donate as they feel appropriate for my time. I am letting them know that this is only because it is a student to student arrangement... and this is only for the first batch of prints. Even still, the students have been pretty generous so far with what they have been saying they will donate. They get a lot more excited once I show them the sample prints.

it doesn't help much that on campus there is a 'print' shop that charges less than a third what I do for prints, but they won't be able to see a difference unless they use a magnifying glass.. and if they wait a couple of months...

Will post examples later. Still fighting for time for my last and most difficult final too. The students in the play only have like 4 or 5 days of class left.

EDIT: forgot the thumb!

Message edited by author 2007-06-20 05:13:10.

Sony 24-70mm F4 Vario-Tessar T* FE OSS

06/20/2007 09:31:44 AM · #18

bump... is it really that bad?

... a hushed silence fell over the crowd as the mood shifted from uninterested to.... uninterested....

Bear_Music

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

06/22/2007 09:50:09 AM · #19

Originally posted by eschelar:

bump... is it really that bad?

... a hushed silence fell over the crowd as the mood shifted from uninterested to.... uninterested....

Nah, I just lost track of the thread. You've done a great job!

R.

justamistere

Nikon D3s

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8G IF-ED

06/22/2007 11:47:07 AM · #20

Her are some possibilities. Hope you like some. It all depends what you want to emphasize. Then chop out or Dodge-n-Burn ("Red" box), the incidentals. The painting, man's cap, or partial green bottles, may only be needed. I always like borders.

----

The 1st one would be cool with a vignette.

Message edited by author 2007-06-22 11:49:38.

Sony 24-70mm F4 Vario-Tessar T* FE OSS

06/22/2007 12:28:54 PM · #21

Thanks all. and thanks for the kudos bear... you read correctly that my confidence level is a bit shaky. Got a phone call a few days back cancelling my 2nd photography 'job'. beh.

I took a printed image to a student today who was really excited to see something of himself and offered me double what I was asking for the print as a donation. When I lifted the protective paper, he laughed. Like he was shocked! I asked if he didn't like it, but he said he did like it... Then he said "I didn't expect it to be so... good."

What the heck is that supposed to mean? Don't know if he was just being nice or what... He was the King in the Cinderella show that I will post tomorrow morning. Maybe I just lost my marbles from sitting in my room studying for finals and editing hundreds of pictures... (did final pass over the last three days crops, sharpness checks, color temperature tweaks and shadow recovery... on over 600 images... Oy!)

Bear_Music

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

06/22/2007 12:53:48 PM · #22

Originally posted by eschelar:

I took a printed image to a student today who was really excited to see something of himself and offered me double what I was asking for the print as a donation. When I lifted the protective paper, he laughed. Like he was shocked! I asked if he didn't like it, but he said he did like it... Then he said "I didn't expect it to be so... good."

What the heck is that supposed to mean? Don't know if he was just being nice or what...

I used to get that all the time. It's called "exceeding expectations" and all great businesses are built on it. By your own description you have gone the extra mile (or 10) on this job, and his reaction is a testament to that.

Good work!

R.