The original image suffered from a couple of problems, though those issues may not be seen as such in all contexts. The leaf on the left side of the original image is larger than the cacao pods, perhaps causing the viewer to question the subject of the image. Is the image a look at the tree as a whole, or at the interesting leaf shapes, or the cacao pods? When I took this image, I took it with the cacao pods as the intended subject. There is also a slight glare from the sun in the top left corner of the original image; the glare obscures the leftmost cacao pod somewhat.
I cropped this image to draw viewers’ attention to the cacao pod, rather than the tree as a whole. Cutting out the large leaf, as well as the glare, improved the clarity of the image. This improved its quality. I used the rule of thirds, placing the subject of the image in the right third and the lower third to improve its artistry and aesthetic. I cut out unnecessary pieces of the image, including the distracting large leaf. The crop changed the meaning of the image from being about the tree as a whole to being about the cacao pod.
Cacao pods seem so much bigger than I would have imagined! I think this cropping does a great job of bringing into focus the pod rather than the tree as whole. Emphasizing this one cacao pod really shows more detail. Keeping the cacao pod in the right third was a good choice as well as cutting out a lot of the tree. I think there is just enough tree vs. pod to give it contrast, but not take away from the focus.
One thing is that it might have been nice if the photos were blown up a bit more in the post so we could see the details more clearly, rather than being placed next to each other.
Hi Annelise! The cropped photo does make the cacao pod the absolute focus of the photo, without any doubt. Perhaps instead of cropping it so close to the cacao pod, you could have just cropped out the large leaf and the majority of the light streaming in but left the top and bottom of the photo uncropped so there’s more context surrounding the cacao pod. The leaf is certainly overbearing. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a leaf that large. Overall, it does feel like the cropped photo is more about the pod and less about the tree as a whole. The detail of the cacao pod is also enhanced in the cropped photo. In the original, you can’t quite make out the crack in the pod, but you can see it in the cropped image. Out of curiosity, where was this image taken?
Hello Annelise,
Nice work you did on cropping the original picture. the cropped picture shows the beauty of God’s nature. I can see a lot of details showing in the leaves that was hard to see on the original picture. The pod too; it is showing the full size and the texture and the spots on the branch itself.
Very nice work
Thank you
Hi Annelise,
Thanks for sharing the above photos. I do think you did a great job focusing on the pod on the right. In the initial photo, it was harder to see the details of the leaves, trees, and cocoa pods. By cropping it allowed us to see every ridge in the tree, line in the leaves, and texture of the pods. I think the term is force perspective but in the original photo, it makes the cocoa pods look small like coffee beans or raisins. Your cropping made me view them as the size of honeydew or cantaloupe.