To “crop” an image is to remove or adjust the outside edges of an image (typically a photo) to improve framing or composition, draw a viewer’s eye to the subject, or change the size or aspect ratio. In other words, photo cropping is the act of improving an image by removing unnecessary parts. Here is me trying to crop my images to improve them in different ways.

Landscape and portrait crop:

I think the landscape format crop works better for this image as the walls around the people act as a border, forcing the eyes towards the subject more and cropping the image landscape will not waste this feature. However, the pebbles on the ground that can be seen on the portrait image, leads the eyes towards the subjects, as they get smaller and smaller. I edited this photo in black and white too keep with match the style of Bresson.

Panoramic crop:

Here I did wide crops of 2 images, on vertically and one horizontally. I think the first image works well for a wide, horizontal crop because there is a lot of empty or unimportant detail that does not add to the overall image so I cropped it out. It also makes the main subject take up more of the image. The second image works well with a vertical crop because it keeps only one subject in the photo, and creates an interesting photo with all the windows behind taking up the background of the image.

square crop:

With a rectangular crop, the eye has a tendency to move across the image until it finds its focal point; with a square crop the eye moves around the image. This shift in the dynamic, from fluid to static, presents you with a great setting for capturing the serene. Striking still lives with plain backgrounds and posed portraits work a treat in a square frame.

Centred subjects have a tendency to look flat and dull in a rectangular frame, but that circular eye motion that we make with square-cropped images means that they don’t lose their impact. This is clearly being show in this image of the car, as its headlights take the centre stage and stand out. All the people before now being cropped out further adds to the impact this car has. (I have edited this image in black and white to further stand out the little Renault).

circle crop:

Here I cropped this image in a mostly circular format in photoshop. I did this more for the contrast as most circle cropped images are happy and exciting but this one is the complete opposite, with this young kids parents having a fag.

Our school travelled to St Malo for street photography. St Malo is a walled city on the English channel coast and is a popular tourist centre and has a lot of historical value. We where trying to capture the ‘decisive moment’, coined by Henri Cartier-Bresson. This is where there was little planning involved (the furthest I planned was waiting at specific areas where I think an interesting moment could happen). I was looking for photos that looks classically ‘French’ as we where in France after all. I also did a few photos of just the French architecture, with their colourful French shutters and bright doors. Here are a few of my favourite photos with a small amount of colour editing:

Biuldings:

These photos would go very well together in a topology so I have edited them with similar settings so I can do this later on. I tried to capture the unique buildings in St.malo, that maybe had so moss growing, old paint, graffiti, and more to give the images more life.

People:

Here I mostly cropped to keep to the rule of thirds, making the subject more prominent, However with some cases I thought it looked better to forget about the rule of thirds, like when the subject is moving quickly off the scene. I have a few strong images that I will edit further and try a ‘Bresson style’ B&W photo.

Henri Cartier-Bresson was a very influential and famous photographer, born in France in the earth 20th century and considered a master of candid photography (every aspect is unplanned). He harnessed the idea of the decisive moment, which is, with little planning, waiting for a moment which is interesting to capture. His photos set in motion a transformative wave that resonated throughout the photographic community. It symbolized a shift from planned, staged and seemingly perfect composition, to more real, spontaneous photos that tried to capture the truth in his subjects within the frame.

He saw his camera as an extension of his eye due to his understanding that the most appealing candid images are created when the subject is completely unaware they are being photographed. He also saw photography to be like ‘hunting’ your subject. This is because he never planned his photos, so he would walk around ‘hunting’ for the perfect photo.

“For me the camera is a sketch book, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity, the master of the instant which, in visual terms, questions and decides simultaneously. In order to ‘give a meaning’ to the world, one has to feel involved in what one frames through the viewfinder.

How he took photos and the camera used:

Bresson took photos in the photography genre called street photography, which is a form of documentary but it is decidedly not reportage and rarely tells one story. He would sometimes capture something very unexpectedly (like a crime, or an funny looking face), however most of his photos where seemingly normal yet extraordinary at the same time. This is due to his perfection in composition and finding the perfect subject.

Too take his street photographs, he used the Leica handheld camera, commercially available as of 1924. This was the perfect camera of the time to allow quick photographs on the move, as well as adjustable exposure time to capture more of less movement. It was a 35-mm film camera with a wide aperture, as well as being able to advance quickly, allowing photographers to take photos of the subject in quick succession. This meant the photographer had lots of choice to find the best photo.

Below are some famous photos from him:

his background:

he grew up in a wealthy family in France and originally had a passion for art, until he discovered photography, seeing it as an extension of his eye in the 1930s. This passion for photography steamed from seeing the work of two major 20th-century photographers, Eugène Atget and Man Ray. Making use of a small allowance, he traveled in Africa in 1931, where he lived in the bush, recording his experiences with a miniature camera.

He also visited many other places like Europe and America, expanding his knowledge of cultures an the world, allowing his to find a true meaning to photography, the decisive moment. This is where you consider everything like anticipating a good shot and the connection with the environment and the subject.

Photo analysis:

This photo is very good in many ways. Firstly, the rule of thirds are heavily in use, with the main subject running off the scene (in the centre right third), making the image compositionally more appealing. This also allows the viewer to see where the subject came from, and how he got over to the right (by leaping through the water). There are many structural lines that bring the eyes over to the this subject, like the fence in the background, the reflection of this fence, and the wood on the floor that the subject used to get across. The negative space in this image helps the subject to take over the image, especially his shadow witch completely contrasts the bight water.

The image is in Black and white, removing the distraction of colour, allowing the essence of the image to be captured, instead of realism, of course this was only due to a limitation of 1930s cameras, but it still positively impacted the image. the texture of the image became more pronounced as well, with the smooth, shiny water contrasting the the rough and worn out walls in the background.

He used a smaller aperture to achieve more depth of field (focus in the foreground and background), and a medium film speed to get the a clear photo with enough brightness in his image. His shutter speed was short to capture the subject jumping without them being to blurry.

mid day sun is very difficult to take photos in, however Bresson embraced the negatives of mid day sun. For example the harsh shadows created deep shadows, and high contrast. It also added texture to the image, especially the puddle, making more defined ripples.

I like this image as the whole lower section is waste, with an ironic text on the vehicles container saying ‘waste disposal’. This is further amplified by the only colour in the image being this text. However, some parts of the photo is lacking like how most of the image is in a mid grey tone, especially the sky, giving this image a blander look. This photo had some similarities to Edward Burtynsky photos with the presentation of large waste areas.

This image is good in the use of motion blur as it draws the eyes to the main focus point of the image (the large industrial pipes), making it seem more important and more destructive to the natural environment around it. the organic background paired with the subject creates a contrast between the pipes and the landscape. I think the editing could be improved on as the edges from the foreground to the background looks odd.

I think this image is a good representation photos from the likes of Edward Burtynsky. This is because the image is packed with detail and is very vibrant. The image does lack in some ways as the subject (the bus) doesn’t stand out as much from all the details elsewhere in the image.

Virtual galary:

Here are two images I took in the Pyrenees that I spiced up a little using photoshop. For the first image I used multiple exposure and flipped the centre of the image 180 degrees, making this image stand out more. For the second Image I highlighted the sign and used a geometric pattern to colour in the backside of it. This also makes the image stand out more to the viewer because the geometric shapes contrast the natural landscape in the back.

For this small photoshoot, I took many photos around town, focusing on the movement of people, giving my images another dimension, time. This links with my Anthropocene work as it shows the built up landscape, with nothing natural left. I think the movement of time in the photo could represent how fast the world is changing.

How I took the photoshoot:

I would hold the camera with my hands to add a blur to the image, then I would set the camera to a high exposure setting, allowing a ghosting effect for people walking by, giving a feeling of time. I took multiple images, each slightly changing the angle as I plan to overlay them in photoshop after.

First Attempt:

I did this photo exclusively in photoshop, I used a few of the image I took and used multi-exposure, by overlapping images, to show one person more that once in the image, giving a the effect that time is moving in the image. I increased the exposure as well.

Second Attempt:

For this one I used more photos to blend, I think this may be worse than my first attempt because there is too much going on in the photo. Jung also said that using more than 4 exposures can be hard to control the output of the image.

3rd attempt:

Here I only used one photo but had the shutter open for around 1 second. Then I moved my camera around to create the motion blur.

Other Attempts:

I walked around the jersey dump/ power station to find dramatic images that show how much produce humans use and waste. The whole area we walked around was added land built by people, which many people believe has effected the environment around it. For example, lots of sea weed now gets washed up on the beaches next to it. We found many interesting subjects, like a large pile of colourful glass, large mounds on cobble, concrete and other materials, lots of working requirement and more. I edited my photos with high saturation like an Edward Burtynsky photo, with the composition having many things inside so if I scale up my images like he does, there will be many focal points to look at.

Photo1:

Here you can see leading lines towards a broken down fire truck. This image has almost no new objects and people which adds to a wasteland feel.

Photo2:

Here you can see the view of the jersey power station, with large piles or rubbish and dirt in the foreground. The smoke (from diesel turbines) just started, likely because it was around peak energy usage in jersey. The destruction of the ground added with the smoke almost makes the image seem apocalyptic, notifying the viewer of a serious global warming problem.

Photo3:

Here, the whole image is covered in glass bottles, overwhelming the viewer with the worlds waste problems. I have increased the contrast to make each bottle easier to distinguish from one another.

Other Photos:

Creative Editing:

Here I only allowed red to be saturated, causing the rest of the image to be black and white.

Here I let gave colour to main subjects in the image, leaving the rest white and black. This helped the images noise as before there was too much going on in one photo, so by doing this the image has main parts the eyes can look at.

What if humans change there actions, and restore the environment?

I added wind mills to the landscape as Jersey has been planning to do off sure wind farms for a while. This is a clean, environmentally friendly energy source and would help jersey a lot if they can generate there own energy.

I took these photos while in the Pyrenees during spring. I went down into the valley to hopefully find some construction work, destroyed landscapes, ext that would link to the Anthropocene project. I found a half abandoned power station that was the main focus for this photo shoot of around 200 photos. I took the same photo with different exposure levels to get a higher dynamic range for more dramatic and detailed photos. I set my camera to aperture priority, with a low ISO level as it was a sunny day and I wanted to get as much detail as possible. my f-stop was mostly high (around 20f) to get more of the image in focus. Below is a panoramic view (using Lightroom) of the power station/industrial estate I went to:

My Strongest photos:

These photos were taken in the power station (half abandoned), down in the valley. The geometric shapes of the power station contrasts the natural shapes formed by the mountains in front. I edited the photos with high saturation to replicate most of Edward Burtynsky photos. I also increase the contrast to give a more dramatic image. A lot of these images, especially the on with the bus, shows nature overpowering human structures, with the weeds and plants growing through the rundown little French power station. This gives some of the images a pleasant look as nature is beginning to take back the land it use to have.

However, the photo on the top left is very different as the powerplant looks fairly new, with its clean, geometric building and wiring. This makes the image less pleasant to look at as the powerplant does not match the environment its in (also because no consideration for the aesthetics has been used). The mountain behind dominates the power plant in the foreground which can give the viewer hope that our planet is still not fully destroyed yet.

Creative editing:

Here I added motion blur to the background, allowing the viewers eyes to focus more on the industrial pipes dominating the foreground. I also bumped up the contrast only on the foreground image to really make it stand out, as an Anthropocene is about humans effect on the earth, and this large industrial pipe is a clear example of humans impacting the earth negatively. I was inspired by Stephanie Jung to edit the background as being blurred.

Here I again took inspiration from Stephanie Jung set these 4 images above into multi-exposure. This creates a very abstract photo, which gives a similar effect to motion blur.