Why Me?

[FrankMi]

I rarely post tall portrait images so I'm not sure about the cropping on this one. There is more space above but it seemed to be too tall and thin already. Any C&C is welcomed.



Golden Lion Tamarin (I think!)

[Geoff F]

Yes I agree. You really need to see the full tail length and cropping closer would be too tight as it is looking upwards. Adding more space would make the monkey seem too small.

[ktuli]

I am a big fan of portrait/tall cropping, so this one works for me. When the subject calls for it, all you can do is answer...

- Bill

[FrankMi]

Thanks for the guidance Geoff and Bill. This is new territory for me.

[paulwilbur]

Must the critter be centered and absolutely vertical?

[Steve S]

Frank, if it were me, i would show a little more room on the top and shift the tail to the 1/3 line on the right. There is nothing wrong with the virtical crop, its just this type of image NEEDS to be viewed larger to get the full effect.

[FrankMi]

Must the critter be centered and absolutely vertical?

Hi Paul, actually it is tilted slightly to the left. The tail in the original was parallel with the door frame on the left that I had to crop out. I considered cropping more off the right but was concerned that the aspect ratio was getting too tall and thin as it was. Thank you for the feedback!

[FrankMi]

Frank, if it were me, i would show a little more room on the top and shift the tail to the 1/3 line on the right. There is nothing wrong with the virtical crop, its just this type of image NEEDS to be viewed larger to get the full effect.

Hi Steve, I had positioned the tail based on the Golden Ratio. I'll try a narrower crop to get the subject a little more to the right. One of the drawbacks to doing the initial crop prior to PP is that if you want to expand the crop (add more space to the top?) you need to go back to the original and do the PP over - assuming you can remember exactly how you did it the first time! Thanks for the comment!



I'm not sure I like it better. What do you think?

[Geoff F]

Personally, Frank, I would stick with the original.

But I have never been a follower of hard and fast rules when photographing wildlife.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Steve, I had positioned the tail based on the Golden Ratio. I'll try a narrower crop to get the subject a little more to the right. One of the drawbacks to doing the initial crop prior to PP is that if you want to expand the crop (add more space to the top?) you need to go back to the original and do the PP over - assuming you can remember exactly how you did it the first time! Thanks for the comment!



I'm not sure I like it better. What do you think?

Hmm, before I saw this, I was thinking along the same lines as Steve, but by some kind of illusion, this doesn't look as good now.

If you did the crop in LR, or the ACR part of CS5, when you reopen the RAW file, it should still have all the RAW adjustments applied (via sidecar file or if DNG, because embedded as meta data), so that should (in theory) make it possible to re-select the crop in LR/ACR, preserving most of the PP (except any cloning done later in CS5). - but I know what you mean
Regarding cropping, my thoughts were to take a slither off right hand side (i.e. perhaps not quite as much) AND add a bit more at the top (if possible) - with the aim to get the 'stare point' into the corner of the cropped image. However, that may not be possible, or only if the subject's body ends up dead centre, in which case I'd go back to the original crop in post #1.

Cheers,

[FrankMi]

Hmm, before I saw this, I was thinking along the same lines as Steve, but by some kind of illusion, this doesn't look as good now.

If you did the crop in LR, or the ACR part of CS5, when you reopen the RAW file, it should still have all the RAW adjustments applied (via sidecar file or if DNG, because embedded as meta data), so that should (in theory) make it possible to re-select the crop in LR/ACR, preserving most of the PP (except any cloning done later in CS5). - but I know what you mean
Regarding cropping, my thoughts were to take a slither off right hand side (i.e. perhaps not quite as much) AND add a bit more at the top (if possible) - with the aim to get the 'stare point' into the corner of the cropped image. However, that may not be possible, or only if the subject's body ends up dead centre, in which case I'd go back to the original crop in post #1.

Cheers,

Hi Dave, you make excellent points for doing as much work as possible, including croping, in either Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw, and I agree. In fact I'm still refining my post processing workflow and am moving more in that direction. Because the original was shot in a dark building at a distance, and trying to use a shutter speed that would compensate for movement, it was underexposed. As a result, I had to do considerable Photoshop layering work to get the exposure of various components close to reasonable. Perhaps if I started again I could get a better image but for now I think I'll go with what I've got and accept the results as part of the learning experience.

Getting the 'stare point' into the corner? Now that also makes sense. I had never thought about it until you mentioned it. Another lesson learned! Thanks!

[arith]

I like tall and thin; it is great you can get a really big portrait. 2:1 looks about right to me

[FrankMi]

I like tall and thin; it is great you can get a really big portrait. 2:1 looks about right to me

Hi Steve. In the end I decided to bite the bullet and redo the PP from the RAW. When I add a little more space to the top and trim the right side slightly the ratio is just over 2:1. I'll be posting it in a Mini soon so we'll see how a wider audience views the image.

I also want to thank all of you that took the time to consider and comment on this photo. I really appreciate the honest feedback!