This past summer, when I took my first ever trip to the Midwest with visiting Chicago, my friend, a Chicago native and huge Cubs fan invited me out to attend a game. This is an image that I was able to capture moments before the whistles were blown to start the game. With this image, we can focus on one subject and that is the plane. Being at the center of the image, it helps to capture a moment of patriotism as the plane flewover right after the United States national anthem was played.
As you can tell from the original image, there was signage to the left side from the ballpark itself that was distracting and taking away from looking at the focal point of the image. By cropping it the way I did, my intent was to take out the signage from the picture and emphasize the plane. Now the viewer is able to really just look at the plane as it is the only subject within the image itself.
I believe I was able to touch on the following cropping concepts in my derivative image:
- Crops to Change or Emphasize a Focal Point
- Leaves out unnecessary details (simplifies the background)
- Crops for emotion
Hello! The original image looked almost comical with the “Hey Hey” sign off the side, which was a distraction as you stated. It gave a different mood to the photo than your cropped image. As you described, after you cropped the image, the image was more serious, and it made the mood more patriot and somber.
Are there other ways that image could have been cropped? The “Hey hey” sign could have been the focal point and everything else could have been cropped out. You could have had the plane centered, although then it wouldn’t have been following the rule of thirds as well. I liked how simple the effect was, really dramatically making the plane the ultimate center of attention. Well done!
Hey, Hey. I do not think I can stop saying that phrase over and over now. I added a little more sass than needed. It took me away from what was going on here. It looks like it was a nice day out. I hope the game was a blast. Chicago is a great place to visit, with tons of activities to do. I’m not sure if I would live there, though. I see that you cleared many of the distracting clouds to encourage greater focus on the plane. Your second focus looks wonderful. I can see a better closeup of the landing gear and engines as well. Much more detailed. Now to include some audio of the flyover. Joking, of course. Well done.