I’ve been teaching a Beyond the Basics photography class for MIPA this week. When I talked about cropping for maximum impact, I used this image as the demonstration.
Immediately when we crop the man behind the fence out, we have made an improvement to the image.
But what would happen if we cropped from the closest reasonable image and worked our way out?
The photo tells a story, but what is that story? We can’t really tell what’s going on in the image. Let’s pull back a little.
There is much more information in this image. It’s a softball player throwing the ball. But, again, what happens when we pull back a little more?
Now, if we think a moment at what the image is showing us, we can probably deduce that this is a third baseman throwing the ball to the first baseman. If we pull back one more time, we must ask ourselves if we have reached the point where we have included everything we need to and don’t need anything else.
I don’t think it is vital that we include the pitcher ducking and their coach watching the throw. We have found the sweet spot at this point. I am a little disappointed with the guy in the dugout blowing his nose int he background, but the depth of field blur keeps the distraction to a minimum.
