New software can cause us to reprocess our old images…
Consider the crop, or should I say… reconsider the crop?
I shot this image six years ago. I processed in a late dot release of Lightroom 2 and then set it aside. With the recent release of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4.x, a new set of processing tools were made available. These new tools, among other things, gave me the ability to process shots containing the disk of the sun with better results.
Above is the uncropped reprocessed version with the new detail. Notice the sun’s disk? The highlight detail is much greater. I wanted a little more saturated look this time around as my tastes have changed. Whether you like the new processing or not isn’t the point of this article but rather what do you think about the crop? Without looking too hard at my old crop, I decide to recrop it based upon my cropping sensibilities today.
The recrop is wider on the right and slightly narrower on the left. I left a little more space top and bottom than in the 2006 crop. Those crepuscular rays were just too delicious in the new processing to chop them off. I also liked the way the wave exits the diagonal of the image in the lower right hand corner. The intruding left-most tree is eliminated as well. This feels better on balance and makes the rays a little more the star than the original crop did.
Just because you are reworking an image doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t consider reworking the crop as well. Your sense of aesthetics, knowledge and taste can all change with time. After all, crops don’t have to be set in stone.
Rikk Flohr © 2012
This is a great example of the improved process version in LR4. I guess it is time for me to upgrade!
I do like the updated crop (and processing) better. While you’re playing with the newer tools, looks to me like about -20 points of Vertical perspective adjustment would straighten up that innermost tree on the left side of the frame. I find that tilt distracting, don’t you?
Interesting comment, Mark. I agree it looks different but not necessarily better when I correct it as you suggest.
The information you are missing is that when I look at shots of the scene where the tree is in the center of the frame, it truly leans out that far in real life. This, of course raises the conundrum of changing perceived perspective flaws when they don’t exist. For that, beyond the artist’s sensibilities, I don’t have a good answer.