Two crops, or really, a crop and a non-crop

[roostabunny]

Full frame or a little tighter? Thanks for any feedback!

Full frame:


Crop:

[nicuRNmama]

I like the tighter crop - I don't think the extra shirt or grass around her head add anything

[zona5101]

I like them both but am leaning towards the tighter crop. Looks like a little green tint in the hair, probably some bleeding from the grass. You could desaturate the greens a little and see if that gets a little more pure on the hair. Maybe just a tad bit of warming to the skin?
All in all, nice shot as it stands.

[roostabunny]

Originally Posted by nicuRNmama

I like the tighter crop - I don't think the extra shirt or grass around her head add anything

Critical context there. We must know that she's on a lawn and not just sitting on a green couch.

Appreciate it, nicuRNmama! I think you're right.

[roostabunny]

Originally Posted by zona5101

I like them both but am leaning towards the tighter crop. Looks like a little green tint in the hair, probably some bleeding from the grass. You could desaturate the greens a little and see if that gets a little more pure on the hair. Maybe just a tad bit of warming to the skin?
All in all, nice shot as it stands.

Thanks, Bruce. You'll see in my other active thread that I'm now on a hunt for resources and reading on color. I think the lessons from PS tuts would apply to the GIMP well enough. I just started toying with the hue/saturation dialog and realized that it's more powerful than the Color Balance dialog I've been mostly using up till yesterday. Eventually I want to understand how to work with curves as well - it seems like that's the ultimate control... if you know how to use it.

Edit: Oh, and as I said to nicuRNmama, I agree about the tighter crop.

[Biomech]

She's cute :P I like them both, I'm like 1% more to the tighter crop I think, just because in the first, the blown out part of the hair is a little distracting and in the second the eyes stand out more

[TNH]

Hmmm... I like the tighter crop. There aren't as many distractions around as the un-cropped version. But I would have tried to not cut off that much of her head (in the cropped version).
It's a pretty amazing picture!!

[roostabunny]

Thanks, Jamie and TNH! Seems like there's consensus toward the crop.

TNH, I'm forever cutting off the tops of heads (even in the camera, as was the case here), but in all honesty, the blown out highlight that Jamie mentioned was part of the reason I came a little lower in the crop.

Thanks for all this great feedback!

[TNH]

Originally Posted by roostabunny

TNH, I'm forever cutting off the tops of heads (even in the camera, as was the case here), but in all honesty, the blown out highlight that Jamie mentioned was part of the reason I came a little lower in the crop.

HA! I'm glad to know that someone else accidentally cuts off people's heads in-camera, too. I'm not the only one.

I never noticed the big blown-out spot before now- and you're right, it does look better when it's cropped out.

[roostabunny]

Originally Posted by TNH

HA! I'm glad to know that someone else accidentally cuts off people's heads in-camera, too. I'm not the only one.

I'm sure you're not the only one, but actually, I cut heads off on purpose (much to the dismay of some more-traditional relatives) because I frequently like the composition.

But for full body and 3/4 shots I often unintentionally cut limbs awkwardly. Same problem, other end.

I wonder if we're each focused on something else that makes us forget about the other parts. For me, I think I hyperfocus on the eyes and forget the feet and hands.

Side note: Also routinely forget to check the edges of my frame for dumb stuff that I don't want in the picture, check my WB setting, and reset exposure compensation when I move to the next shot.