Please help me to choose a crop

[milosh]

Hello everyone,

I have here two versions of an image taken in Budapest but I can't quite decide on the crop. The second attachment is the original image and the first one is one crop I like. I like the stone wall in the foreground whose right part kinda' leads the eye to the bridge and the city (which are my main subjects), but I feel that the stone walls are taking up too much space in the original version. Which version do you like better and maybe you can suggest something better.

Thanks!

[charlesj68]

I like the crop better. Leaving in the point where the two stone surfaces come together to create a "v" makes a visual element that seems to grab my eye before I get to the bridge. The crop detaches the two, and my eye then flows on over to the cityscape.

The only other thing that I might change is to deal somehow with that light that is just to the left of center on the bottom edge. Either crop up just a bit more on the bottom to get rid of it, or sneak in and darken it down.

[leviathan]

I think it's a beautiful shot, but I don't care for either crop, mainly because the horizon in both photos is approxomately in the middle of the image. The sky is beautiful, but I don't think it's necessary to have that much of it for us to get a sense of the mood and beauty. Crop the top of the sky more so that it fills the top third of the image. This will help ground the image and give it a pleasing composition, as opposed to the horizon splitting the image in half.

[milosh]

Thank for your opinions guys. I tried to crop it like you said and I got two versions. In the first one (that's the second attachment) I cropped it just a little bit more from the bottom (to crop out the light) and it already looks better. In the second I tried to make the sky 1/3 up but it is impossible to do that and keep the aspect ratio, so I made it look like a wide angle shot (something like 16:9). What do you think?

[Hartzler]

A beautiful scene, of the four versions presented, I like No. 3 the best, the 16:9 crop. It seems the strongest in terms of composition and balance between sky and land.

[junglebear]

Yep very nice capture and I agree that compositionally no.3 seems strongest. As long as you haven't lost too much quality in the original, it's a good'un

[billstearman]

Originally Posted by milosh

Hello everyone,

I have here two versions of an image taken in Budapest but I can't quite decide on the crop. The second attachment is the original image and the first one is one crop I like. I like the stone wall in the foreground whose right part kinda' leads the eye to the bridge and the city (which are my main subjects), but I feel that the stone walls are taking up too much space in the original version. Which version do you like better and maybe you can suggest something better.

Thanks!

The Croped gives a little more detail. I like it better

[natek313]

Your 16:9 crop is the best, in my opinion.

[milosh]

Thanks everyone! The 16:9 crop is also my favourite, but the problem is low image quality/sharpness which is easily visible with this crop. I guess that's because of the nasty winds while I was shooting it, and my tripod isn't the most stable one.