ajaffe wrote in post #10852305
I am not sure I follow you in regards to the crop ratio comment. Are you saying that all of my images are cropped to the same ratio? I personally have no idea how I did that if so as I go through each image individually and crop from there.
Upon closer inspection
, I see that your shots are not all cropped to the same ratio (as I see many times from some posters). That is, many times, why shots such as yours are cropped so loosely. They're trying to use the same ratio on all their shots. Sometimes they are processing them for print, sometimes they process them at a certain ratio in case they may print them or use them in a slide show, or sometimes to fit other output/media constraints. Sometimes they do it. . . . just because. I have no way of knowing why someone might crop the way they do.
I just know that they (we) chose to display them here, mostly to get C&C so we can improve our craft. I used to try to crop uniformly myself 'just in case'.
I still don't know why you chose to crop some of these so loosely. You do have some nicely timed action captures there and I think you could take them up a notch (IMHO) with more thoughtful cropping. However, it's your 'art' so to speak, so if that's the way you choose to display it, it's certainly your choice.
That said, I once had it put to me this way:
"If it doesn't add to the composition, it probably takes away from it."
All of those little things in the BG that are not part of the story distract the viewers from the story trying to be told. The story in your shots as I see it, are the main subjects right around the ball. If I have to see the other players in the BG (or anywhere else in the composition) and try to figure out how they relate to the 'story', it detracts from the main subject matter of the shot.
Sometimes BG elements add to the composition, such as a crowd of interested onlookers, a scoreboard, a banner that tells the viewer what event they are looking at, someone 'celebrating', etc.
Other times you find fences, poles, corners of buildings, disinterested onlookers, players not directly involved in the action, trash cans, outhouses, goals from other fields, cars in parking lots and telephone wires are all examples of BG elements that may detract from a composition.
In this case, the facial expressions and 'poses' are something many viewers of sporting photographs are wanting to see in great detail. A tighter crop allows us to make the subject larger/more prominent in the frame.
It's up to us to consider all of those things and how they affect the others view our work. If the good folks here are kind enough to take the time to view, and make suggestions for improvement, I prefer to take the time to present the work in the best way possible. If I were going to crop them in a way that they might not present well here, I would probably take the time to mention why I did so because it's something that will likely be mentioned.
Just some things to consider when post processing.
Regards,
Jeff
Canon 20D w/grip, 300D, Powershot SX100 w/HF-DC1 flash, Canon 70-200 f/2.8L, 85 f/1.8, 17-55 f/2.8 IS, 50 f/1.8, 580EX and some other stuff...