Edge of Blue (plus crop)
by Kah Kit Yoong
I wonder what the effect of Instagram and the trend of websites to present images/thumbnails as square on how we compose. In any case after playing with crops, I decided square was best with this one from the ever popular Vermillion Lakes.
Comments
14 commentsI like the curve a lot, the instagram crops are probably here to stay maybe but
I think this would be better in a wider crop.
I'm another dinosaur, I would prefer to see a traditional crop here, which would emphasize Mt. Rundle more. The square crop does a nice job of emphasizing the ice patterns, but IMO creates too much negative space in the lower left quadrant. Perhaps I've become too trained to look for compositions in the traditional aspect ratio. But I think a square crop might work here if you cropped away from the left and bottom to reduce the negative space.in the lower left (cutting the left peak in half, and cropping below where the ice starts to go straight down).
--P
As others have mentioned, I'm really loving the blue hour presentation of this scene. As far as the crop, I think both work beautifully. Square may be a SM trend, but guess what? It's been a format since the beginning of photography, so nothing new here. Square is often pleasing - as is the 4x5 ratio (biased former 4x5 shooter....)
Everything in the composition works beautifully in both versions. If anything, the square original showcases the lead-in feature of the ice edge, and for that reason I would give the nod to your original.
Lon