compositions

My boyfriend and I attended the Orange Bowl this past year, in which FSU was unfortunately demolished by UGA. I won’t bore you with all the silly football drama that preceded this game—let’s just say, we were fairly confident that FSU would lose, but we decided to go and support the team anyway.

Given the circumstances, my boyfriend wasn’t exactly in the highest of spirits as we made our way into the stadium. I snapped the original photo of him, which I’ve deemed “Orange Bowl Escalator Ride,” to capture the silly near-pout on his face while we rode the escalator to the third floor.

I considered several different approaches to cropping the the photo for this assignment. I knew off the bat that I wanted to emphasize his expression, so I would need to cut out some of the noise. On the one hand, I knew it would be a good idea to cut out the parking lot; on the other, I liked the interesting lines created by the overhang and his arm, as well as the greenery. I realized pretty quickly that I couldn’t get rid of one and keep the others without centering the subject or cutting the photo off too close to his face.

In the end, I opted to shift the subject to the right of the photo and crop out as much of the parking lot as I could without cutting off the top of his head; this also helped to bring the subject to eye level. I also cropped his outstretched arm, but stopped at the elbow of his other arm to avoid boxing him in too much.

I’m pretty happy with the result, which I’ve deemed “Pre-Orange Bowl Blues”; I think it emphasizes the anticipation of defeat on his face, while maintaining some context clues like his FSU hat, jacket, and foam finger. I also like that it kind of gives the illusion that he’s gazing down at the crowd of fans in their own jerseys. With this crop, I believe I was able to touch on the following concepts:

• Crops to change or emphasize a focal point
• Leaves out unnecessary details (simplifies the background)
• Un-centers a subject
• Ensures that humans are cropped at eye level
• Leaves some room to move for moving objects/people
• Crops for emotion

The original image depicts a sunrise on Lake Inle in Myanmar with one boatman closer to the foreground and several others farther away in the background. The inclusion of the other boatmen in this composition creates the impression that the boatmen are starting their workday early together and that perhaps this is a common practice. 

However, the distance of the one boatman in the foreground from his fellows invites a more solitary interpretation. Cropping the image un-centers the sun and emphasizes the lone boatman as the focal point of the composition following the Rule of Thirds. It also heightens the solitary or reflective emotion of the piece by simplifying the background and focusing on just one subject. 

 My intent in cropping the image was to heighten the solitary effect by removing the crowd in the background in order to create the impression that our boatman is alone on the lake early in the morning. Perhaps he is catching a couple moments of silence before his day starts or contemplating the beauty of the sunrise on the lake. Regardless, the overall effect becomes one of serenity and reflection rather than morning hustle and bustle. Alternatively, the modification could be seen as creating a sense of solitude or even loneliness as our boatmen is now alone at the forefront of the image, removed from the larger context of the scenery or the company of his peers.

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.

This is a picture from a recent ski trip I took. In this original photo, I am far away from the people on the lift in front of us and we were hanging on the lift for almost 10 minutes while we waited for the wind to die down on top of the mountain. In this original photo, you can see the mountain and the runs on the ground where skiiers and snowboarders ran through on their way down the mountain. You can also see the cables that the lifts are attached to at the edges of the photo, which I think is cool! While there’s nothing techncially wrong with this image, it displays a lot and yet nothing at all. Am I focusing on the ski runs? Am I focusing on the lift? Nature? The composition here is unclear.

In this new version, you can see the focus of this photo is set on the people in the ski lift ahead. These five people are sitting together, waiting to go up the mountain to have some fun. There are three skiiers and two snowboarders. Do these people know each other? Are they meeting for the first time? What are they talking about as they wait for the lift to take them up the mountain? There are so many questions that pop up in my head as I wonder about these mystery people on their way to their next adventure. Whether they know each other or not, they are together.

The person in the middle has their head turned to someone, however it is unclear if they are facing the right or the left. But it seems to me that there are conversations going on this lift, that the focus group is rightfully together. I also like how in this version, you can tell they are going to their next adventure, as you can more clearly see snowboarders and skiiers going down the mountain now in the top left.

In March 2020, before the world turned upside down, I went to London over my spring break with my childhood friend. We visited many historical sites, such as Queen Victoria’s house. Pictured above is a picture I took of a statue of Queen Victoria.

When I look at the picture, my eyes first focus the dirty base of the statue and then the house behind the statue. It is hard to see the face of Queen Victoria, since it is far away. I decided to crop away the base of the statue and the house to give the shoulders and face of the statue more focus. You also get more detail of the beautiful crown on her head, and the sky-blue background with soft clouds also adds a nice background.

I made sure to format her head to follow the rule of thirds, instead of having it in the middle of the frame. I also played around with the auto tune and color, though I am unsure if it had any effect. Overall, this was a fun assignment to do. It was interesting to play around with Photopea and get creative.

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.

Hello everyone,

In the top picture you can see my house in a different state that actually get four seasons of whether not like our Florida. This picture of last fall was taken by me after I cleaned all the fallen tree leaves that were covering the whole front yard. I called this picture the Frontline.

I cropped the picture two times, and I was able to get different views of some details and elements in that picture. In the first picture I was able to crop the neighbor’s house and come close to view the elements of the tress in front of my house.

In the second cropped picture, I was able to see more details were not viewed well in the other two pictures. I was able to actually read the Home sign hanging on the left of the front door. Besides, I was able to read the small Arabic word Allah (God) hanging on the right at the front entrance. Looking deep in the cropped picture, I can read the name on the stone on the ground and more details can be shown in this cropped picture.

For this assignment, I chose to work with a photo I had taken a while back of my son, Gabe, at the beach.

In the original photo, there are several issues to fix. For example, there is an extraneous woman walking in the background. The focal point, my son, is nearly centered in the image, and you can’t tell what he is looking at in the water (you can see something, but it looks like a floating object or buoy). There is way too much sand in the foreground, and even though Gabe was walking, the image feels static and boring, with little emotion.

In the cropped image, Gazing at Papa, I followed the Rule of Thirds, placing the focal point off center, and giving Gabe room to move in the frame. I removed the extra foreground and background, zooming in so you can tell he is actually moving toward a person in the water–his dad, who has been snorkeling.

My favorite thing about the derivative photo is that you can see a determination in the set of Gabe’s shoulders, and even a movement in his gait, that was not noticeable in the original shot. Gabe is gazing out at his papa and walking purposefully to join him in the water.

Admittedly, when I was thinking of what image to use for this lab, I was trying to choose from options that I felt would be easiest to crop and glean new meaning from. I began my search looking up pictures of wolf packs, as they’re my favorite animal and I figured a change in composition could bring new emphasis to a wolf in the background. This didn’t turn out that fruitful, so then I attempted searching for images of dog sledding, which turned out more uneventful. Lastly, I began searching for images of people arguing. Most stock photos depicting arguments often have individuals on clear sides of the photo, as the one I found does. I knew then that this photo would be perfect for manipulation.

The original image shows tension between the couple through their body language. The lifted hand of the individual on the left gives the illusion, to me, that they are in the middle of speaking. The individual on the right is pointedly looking away, positionally making it clear that she is frustrated and not open to listening to what the other person has to say. This is a common human experience, I feel. It is in many of our natures to avoid conflict and I find it common that avoiding eye contact is a gesture that commonly arises when one is upset or feels as if they are in the wrong. However, by cropping, the meaning in the photo can change.

When cropping, I still wanted to keep the right-side woman as the focus point. By keeping the table and the hand of the left-side individual in the crop, this is achieved by following the rule of thirds. The woman is on the right-most side, setting the composition to favor her as the focal point. With the omission of the second individual (minus the hand), the interpretation of the image completely changes. It is still inferred that there is a conversation happening that the woman is not actively participating in. However, she now looks more contemplative rather than upset. Perhaps she is worried or distracted about something? She could be receiving bad news, such as the passing of a loved one or bad prospects on a job. This crop leaves an air of mystery on the actual situation.