Diesel By the Trailer “C” (Original Photo) by Tracey Evans taken 03/19/2023
Taking photos of my fur babies is one of my favorite things to do. I have camera rolls full of them, and most are very similar to each other. This is one of the photos I took of Diesel while she was “helping” her father work in the yard. I have no photography experience, and many photos taken are done so quickly before my subject moves too much and the cute moment is missed.
The original photo didn’t focus on the subject. You can see the fence line in the background and part of the trailer on the right side. The portion of the trailer you can see was really an eye sore. When cropping the photo, I wanted to fully eliminate those two items.
Diesel Sunbathing “C” (Cropped Photo) by Tracey Evans taken 03/16/2023, edited 01/26/2024
In the process of cropping, Diesel ended up being directly in the center, surrounded by lots of grass on all sides. I chose to crop it further, eliminating the grass towards the bottom of the photo, because first, the area had some dead spots that weren’t as visually appealing as the rest of the photo, and second, while Diesel’s face is turned toward the camera, her body is facing away to the left, so you can now see more of the direction she was headed in before she laid down. Since the photo was taken on my phone, the original was also very long, and after cropping, the size is much more appealing for a blog.
By cropping the photo, I emphasized the focal point, took out the unnecessary fence line and trailer, which drastically simplified the background, and uncentered Diesel. While the object was not moving, I did leave room on the side of the face she was moving to emphasize the direction her legs were facing, especially so I didn’t shop her off at the ankles. I love the way the cropped photo turned out, not only for the assignment but also as a keepsake of my baby.
I think this photo is cropped in a great way. It takes out a lot of unnecessary background and focuses in on your dog. I think it was a good idea to crop out the right where part of the trailer was as it was distracting from the purpose of the photo. My eyes actually went to the trailer first wondering ‘what’s that thing?’ until I read the post.
I also like that since you cropped out the fencing and we only see the grass, I get a sense of freedom. Like Diesel could run and go anywhere, but chose to lay right there.
Hi Tracey! The way you cropped out the trailer, tiny tree(?), and fence were all good choices because it focuses your image on the subject: your dog! Cropping out the dirt in the bottom of the image also makes the image more about your dog. Most of your dog is located in the rightmost portion of the image, which balances your cropped image.
If you had a slightly different message in mind, leaving the bare patches of ground in the image may have been an interesting stylistic choice. I also wonder if it would have been more visually interesting if your dog had been placed a little further to the right and a little farther up, leaving more grass on the left and bottom of the image.
Hello Tracey,
I like your dog’s picture. The cropped picture shows a lot of the hair texture and the matching beautiful light brown with the dark brown on the legs. From a distance, it is hard to see the eyes, but with the cropped one, it is easy to see that the dog actually looking at you while you are trying to take her picture. It is easy to see the reflect of her head’s shadow on her own body. Nice work
Thank you
Hi Tracey,
Animals are such a great thing to capture and they each have their own personalities. By cropping the photo, you not only cut out the background distractions like the fence line and the box over to the right but you allowed us to focus on Diesel’s facial expressions.
Since Diesel has a darker coat focusing on her coat and bringing that to the forefront of the photo with the green grass worked in your favor. Diesel is either giving a serious or sassy look. My German Shepard Athena, often has a plain look on her face but she is just a sassy pup the majority of the time.