Being part of a family that enjoys scuba diving had my mother feeling left out lately. So, here she was in Cozumel last year, completing her graduation dive after successfully finishing her classes! The image was taken during a group dive, including experienced and new divers. The photo above is cropped in to highlight just my mom (and her incredible accomplishment)! She is off-center, and the backdrop is a vast open ocean to help accentuate the expanse of water and provide a sense of “depth.”
Okay, so it’s not exactly a solo dive. But that showcases the value of a good crop. Above is the original image I took where you can see the other divers. In an ideal scenario, I would have taken a picture with more open space in my mom’s swimming direction and cropped her into the top-left corner, allowing her room to move within the picture. In this image, however, trying that still would have included some of the other divers.
Hi Bradley,
First of all, congratulations to your mother for achieving the impressive feat of scuba diving! I’m glad she was able to work hard and experience diving with the rest of your family. The initial photo used is already a great shot of your mom (she’s clearly the main character in this story). However, I understand why you had to crop out the other swimmers to reemphasize the focus on her. I would say your crop could have been done a little bit higher than where it is currently. The sliver of negative space underneath her is a bit odd and it looks like the crop is going through her wrist. Perhaps cropping through her waist would have made it seem like she is moving up into the frame. Aside from that, the new photo is wonderful and captures the motion of your mother through the ocean’s expanse.
Hey Bradley!
Wow! Scuba diving has always seemed really intimidating to me; kudos to you and your family for developing such an impressive skill.
This really is a great set of photos. I love the sense of movement you were able to capture with her outstretched arms. Cropping out the other divers does seem like the best way to go, with nothing but the deep blue behind her. You could almost trick yourself into thinking that the feet of the diver near her elbow is actually a fish tail!
However, I would agree with Christopher about the cropping on the bottom looking a bit strange without the greater context of the photo. It’s also too bad that cropping closer to the outstretched hand would center her too much for this particular project…it might also give the impression that she’s inside a tank rather than the open ocean if her hand was too close to the edge of the frame. Other than bringing up that bottom crop, I think you did the best you could considering the angle!
Bradley,
I think your crop is one of the better crops you could get. I agree with both previous assessments for gaining negative space. More space on the left side of the picture would have given more freedom in the crop, but there doesn’t seem a lot of room to choose from there.
It’s an interesting phenomenon looking back at older photos with the knowledge we have know and to think of how we would compose them differently. It’s also a good reminder to take many pictures, with different zoom levels and such. This is a great photo as it is though!