Photographer: Lauren Diaz, 35 mm
Photographer: Lauren Diaz, 35 mm
Last October, I purchased a 35 mm film point and shoot camera. For Media Lab 03: Composition, I decided to utilize the 36 photos because I got my first roll of film developed last week. The photos from my latest roll of film include family pictures from Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. Out of the 36 photos I got developed, my favorite and most dramatic before and after combination was the photo of my nephew, Myles, in his playpen. Originally, I loved this photo because it showed my nephew in the contraption we put him in when he is trying to put electrical plugs in his mouth or knocking down the tower of blocks his sister spent the last 45-minutes putting together. After I used the crop tool, the depiction of the photo changed even for me. Instead of seeing a baby boy weaponizing his smile to be released from his prison of a playpen, I saw a baby boy eager to show you his collection of toys. In other words, the photo was cropped to tell a different story.
Firstly, I utilized Photopea to edit both the before and after photo. Although I did not crop the before photo, I did have to adjust the resolution on Photopea because WordPress did not support my original photo. Following the rule of thirds, I then cropped the photo to emphasize the focal point of Mr. Myles and his toys. More specifically, I utilized the crop tool to remove portions of the playpen and the floor because they were unnecessary details. In other words, the background was simplified. Mr. Myles was also cropped at eye-level and I uncentered him. Ultimately, I cropped the photo to emphasize Mr. Myles and his toys as the focal point. To further emphasize Mr. Myles, I then used the blur tool on Photopea to blur the areas surrounding Myles head and body.
Hi Lauren:
How cute is your nephew, Myles. I can’t stop looking at her cute face with these small teeth, I love babies and I can’t control myself when it comes to babies.
I like that you mention that you used the Photopea app and how to do your steps.
Hi Lauren, I love the way you cropped this pic to focus on your nephew’s cute face rather than the fact that he is, in fact, in baby jail! Mr. Myles is definitely excited to show you his favorite toys and without all the distractions in the background, you are free to look at the adorable focal point. I might even crop it in just a little tighter on his face, but that’s the only suggestion I would make. Great job!
Excellent walk through of your process. I agree with cropping out some of the extra details that weren’t contributing much. I like the idea of adding blur, but I feel like it sacrifices some of the natural charm of using film over digital. With the crop too, it almost feels like Myles has a his playpen as his Zoom background.
Hi Lauren,
Thanks for your post! I know the baby contraptions all too well. I think you made the correct decision in tightening the focal point around his face and toys, rather than the walls of the playpen or the floor. As others have said, I do think you could have cropped it even tighter around his face. However, I would have had even more fun with it. With the original image, it is very obvious he’s surrounded by toys and paying attention to the person behind the camera (you)… but my eyes keep going to the sad elephant on the floor that looks so discarded (it’s the only one we fully see a face for). If you cropped on the elephant, you could have written an entire story about the forgotten toy from the perspective of the elephant, something like “Will I ever be played with again?” That’s just me, though! Either way, wonderful job!
Hi Lauren! Nice to meet you in another class! I hope this semester has been good for you, I enjoyed reading your blog and I agree with you for choosing this image. The background story of the image makes the image way more interesting. The image you cropped from the original image creates another story. The first thing I noticed in the cropped version is your nephew’s cute smile. I like how the cropped version creates another story that he is happy to see us and wants to play with us. The toys in the background blurred out create an impression that he loves the person clicking the picture more than the toys he has.