Don't forget to crop!

Welcome to my musings on photography, images, camera gear and photographers.

As well as showing and discussing my own images, I hope from time to time to be able to discuss the work of others too.

My intention is to discuss images from different viewpoints and comment on how and why they was taken; their strengths and weaknesses; and how they could be improved technically and aesthetically. There will also be interesting photographic tips and news from the world of photography.

At left is an image of a bee on a flower that I took in a garden near where I live just before Christmas. I was using a Nikon D200 with a Micro Nikkor 105mm lens. Although I also used a macro lighting set-up, you can see that I badly misjudged the exposure.

What I want to do is discuss the steps I will take to make it a more acceptable image.

Obviously, the first thing to do will be to lighten the image, but I also want to crop it to reduce some of the dark areas around the flower. I'll be using Adobe Photoshop Lightroom to do both of these tasks. The exposure is easly corrected by using the exposure slider, and in this case I will move it two stops to the "plus" side so that the histogram moves further to the right, increasing the exposure. I can then use the crop tool to reduce the dark area around the flower.


However, I 'm not particularly happy with the result. I feel that the image isn't really striking enough, so I think that I might be able to improve it by rotating it so that the bee is on the side of the image rather than at the bottom. This result probably does improve the composition, but there is a fatal flaw. Can you see it?

Yes, the bee is in a more interesting position, but the stamen in the flower are now drooping horizontally instead of vertically.

Of course, this is pretty much unacceptable, so it's back to the drawing board to see if there is any other answer. I still think that there must be a way of improving the picture.

I finally notice that the image is still rectangular, even after the cropping done earlier.

What if I crop the image to a square format? It will mean shaving a bit off the flower, but I think it might strengthen the composition. Am I right?


I think the final image has the elements that I was looking for: the bee and the stamen are the obvious focus of the photo, and there is an added bonus of golden pollen sprinkled over the petals of the flower.

Although it is no competition winner, it is sharp and colourful and a good representation of the image I had in mind when I squeezed the shutter.




EXIF: Nikon D200; Micro Nikkor 105mm; ISO 100; 1/250 sec; f14

TFF