Last night I wrote about cropping pictures to bring that extra something out. Tonight my best friend had me over for dinner and I took some pictures of her birthday cake.
Basic, simple stuff, right? Okay I tried my usual odd angles thing, but I didn’t spend a lot of time on composition on them.
Take a look at these two pics (Nikon D80, ISO 800, 50mm prime lens, f/2.8, shutter 1/25, aperture priority mode):
In the top photo I didn’t even notice until I loaded it on my laptop that I caught the tendrils of smoke drifting off the candles. In the second one I realized that, wow, lots of black around that cake. So went into ACDSee Pro2 and did some cropping. Here are the same two pictures cropped. Just cropped, no other editing:
This is when you have “wow” moments. I think just cropping on the details has given these shots whole new looks. I could go in closer, get the smoke and dripping wax or just a lit candle. This is what I’m finding most fun and exciting about photography now. I can take a picture, see it right away and then just see where I can go with it from there. Fast, easy and simple.
Wow. I love this hobby.
Tris Hussey is a writer, teacher, blogger, and speaker on all facets of Internet life, WordPress, and social media. If you are interested in having Tris speak, teach, lead a workshop or consult for you, feel free to email tris [at] trishussey [dot] com.
