I took this un-posed image of my son Liam down at the beach one morning. He climbed onto a rock shelf and his silhouette suddenly presented itself. It is perhaps the most favourite image I’ve taken. One aspect I’m unsure about is how to best crop the image. I’ve already cropped slightly (the original is a fraction higher and a tiny bit wider) but am reluctant to lose more of the sky and not sure how to deal with the dark foreground.
Untitled by Andy Parkee
Olympus EPL3; Olympus 17mm; f/2.8; 1/500s; ISO 1000
Don’s response
A young lad in contemplative mood, silhouetted against a spectacular sunrise sky – it’s easy to see why photographer Andy Parkee is particularly fond of this image.
Boy and sky is the subject of this photograph so my instinct would be to turn it into a vertical by cropping out the uninteresting distraction of the buildings and cars. This means Mr Parkee won’t be able to make a large print, but the sensor noise level in the shadows is already pretty high thanks to the very low light levels. If he’s a dab hand with his favourite photo editing tool and particularly if the original image was a Raw file, there are a number of strategies for reducing noise in the shadow areas. A quick Internet search will turn up numerous how-to’s and tutorials on the subject.
This is an image worth the extra effort it will take to really bring to life.
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