The perpetual question of colour, b/w and heavy pp

[250swb]

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But you crop a scene when you point a camera at it, you crop a scene with a 50mm lens or a 21mm lens, any lens, photography is about isolating the interesting things.

But I know what you mean, regarding my own photos I don't like to crop too much unless I'm caught out with the wrong lens on the camera and rather than miss the shot I think to myself 'I'll have to crop that later'. But going back to HCB while he famously didn't crop his images that job was left to the photo editor of the newspaper or magazine who had a space to fill, but you could say that HCB tried to make cropping as hard as possible.

[Dennis]

@01maciel

I crop, maybe 85% of my photos. Sometimes it's just about a few pixels, sometimes more, but I guess always necessary. At least for me.

One of the iconic HCB image

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Did you see the original negative? https://www.instagram.com/p/BqbnC07lgMU/

Here my reason why I crop

 

 

[lct]

33 minutes ago, Dennis said:

Did you see the original negative?

The only one HCB ever cropped, at least officially. No wonder why croppers like this pic . 

[Dennis]

14 minutes ago, lct said:

The only one HCB ever cropped, at least officially. No wonder why croppers like this pic . 

I'm not an HCB connoisseur, I just like his approach and imagery. I can't tell you more. But I don't think is the only one. I used HCB sample because Steve mentioned in post #21.

I will take a deeper look in my Magnum contact sheets book.

.

It's the first time someone called me cropper 🤔 

 

[lct]

50 minutes ago, Dennis said:

It's the first time someone called me cropper

Don't worry you're not alone . Nowadays photogs prefer « composing » so to speak on their PC rather than with their camera. HCB used to say that the main thing he liked in photography is taking the photo not watching at it. As for cropping or otherwise manipulating pics here is what he wrote in 1952 : « We photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing, and when they have vanished, there is no contrivance on earth which can make them come back again. We cannot develop and print a memory. The writer has time to reflect. He can accept and reject, accept again; and before committing his thoughts to paper he is able to tie the several relevant elements together. There is also a period when his brain "forgets", and his subconscious works on classifying his thoughts. But for photographers, what has gone, has gone forever (...). Our task is to perceive reality, almost simultaneously recording it in the sketchbook which is our camera. We must neither try to manipulate reality while we are shooting, nor must we manipulate the results in a darkroom. These tricks are patently discernible to those who have eyes to see. » (Henri Cartier-Bresson, The Decisive Moment, Foreword, page 5, July 22, 1952). Other times, other customs .

Edited August 25, 2021 by lct

[marchyman]

22 hours ago, lct said:

nor must we manipulate the results in a darkroom

I wonder what Ansel Adams though of that statement? 

[lct]

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54 minutes ago, marchyman said:

I wonder what Ansel Adams though of that statement? 

I don't know well his works. Did he do photo journalism in his life?

[erl]

Cropping is unavoidable! The only question is when to do it.

A camera is basically a 'cropping tool', some more than others. M Leicas in particular because of their viewing system. Add to that the reflexive reaction way in which (some of us) use them and accurate framing is often a secondary consideration. How many times did/do famous painters rework their original 'capture'?Countless. Not a problem, but rather a consideration of improvement. So too it is with our photographs.

The first crop I make, is when I perceive my motif. That is instantly cropped in my brain before applying the camera, in the knowledge that the camera must crop somewhere. Some times the camera limitations (not to mention my 'off angle' holding of it) demand that I post crop to achieve the final result. Decrying cropping per se is blinkered thinking, and can lead to missed shots while attempting to perfect cropping in camera.