I liked reading about photograph "Cropping" on page 355 in CDA. The book makes cropping seem like a very big deal and much of the time we don't think about how important cropping a photograph might just be. In fact, based on the reading, it is almost just as important to consider what a photographer cropped out as what the photographer kept in the picture. You can ask yourself questions like, Why did they crop the photograph like that? What effect did it have on the overall photograph? You can even go further and possibly be able to predict things that may have been in the picture, but the photographer decided to crop. There is much room for interpretation and imagination when looking at photographs.
I like reading about this stuff. I did my group discussion on this subject and it is just as interesting before as it is now. It is important to look at every aspect of a photograph, even the way a photograph is cropped and what has been cut out.
The Wonderful Greg writes...
To add on to the cropping, when the picture is cropped to just focus on a set of hands or a face as used in the book, then the viewer seems closer to the photo and therefore closer to the person in the photo. You may not know who's hand that is or why is the face just showing, but in any case you some how feel closer to the person. I think that this technique is just awesome because it takes out information to give more meaning for the purpose.
Cropping Response
I agree entirely. Cropping is a major part of photography and any sort of "art." I've been drawing, painting, etc. all my life and I fully believe that cropping does play a major role in getting the idea across or just simply making a picture better. It seems like such a small thing, but cutting 2 inches off one side of a picture might just make it more important or meaningful. It will help emphasize what the
picture is trying to get across by eliminating unnecessary background information.
Like on page 355, the author shows how if you crop up a picture in different spots, it gives an entirely new meaning. For instance, comparing the cropped picture of the woman with her arms around her husband (page 356) to the picture of just his hands will give two totally different ideas when it is still used from the same picture. The cropped picture of the woman and man may demonstrate love and pride. However, the picture with the hands look sort of limp, implying exhaustion or a feeling of lost hope.
It just goes to show how just cutting up a picture in different areas could change the piece's meaning entirely.