Autumn Leaves – how a crop changes a photo’s mood

Good morning and happy Monday,

This past weekend we had some very beautifully mild autumn days around here. I took long walks in our local park and soaked up the sun, warmth and fresh air. It was really hard not to stop every 5 seconds to take a photo of each pretty fall-colored leaf that had fallen to the ground.

The sun peaked through the trees and in spots provided such a nice light, like the backlighting you can see on the red leaf. With the dark grey asphalt for a background it was perfect.

Back home I prepared the photo for posting it on Instagram. Those who follow me there may have already seen it. Although I liked the original, I played around with the crop, because I wanted to post a square Insta pic, old school 😉 and then decided to share the different versions here. I wanted to show you what a big difference a simple edit like a crop makes to a photo’s mood.

Have a look for yourself – please click on the pic to open it bigger. Remember that these three pictures are all from the same one photo, the change is quite dramatic, isn’t it?

I’m curious, please let me know in the comments, which one of the three is your favorite? Extra ‘points’ if you tell me why.

If you keep this in mind the next time you take a photo, you might not even need to edit, because the crop already starts when you ‘frame the shot’ in camera. Always ask yourself ‘what mood do you want to bring across’ or ‘which element in the picture do you want to emphasize’ or ‘what is the story you want the photo to tell’. Crop and edit accordingly before you share your photo, because less is oftentimes more.

By the way I wanted to mention that I will be cross-posting this post to Hive with PeakD, a social media/blogging network on the blockchain. It has been a while that I was active on this platform. Well, to be entirely transparent I previously was on Steemit. You can check out my Hive here. It’s a pretty cool community and just in case you’d like to join and blog on it this is a referral link (tbh – I am not sure what it does – LOL – I’ve been away for too long!!!).

Anyway, that’s it from me, have a great week!

9 thoughts on “Autumn Leaves – how a crop changes a photo’s mood”

    • You know what, Rhonda? So do I. That’s why I framed it that way when I took the photo. But as I said, I am sometimes a bit old-school for Instagram and like to go square. Hm, that sounds a bit wrong 🙂

      Reply
  1. Claudia,

    How are you doing, my friend? I prefer the first of the three pictures. The composition is more balanced. I like thath the autumn leave is in focus and the background blurred appropriately. I can’t believe it’s October, can you? Have falltastic day, my dear. Stay safe and be well! hugs

    Reply
    • Hi Cathy, so good to see you here! I am well, I hope you are, too. This year has been quite the something and kept, well, is keeping all of us on our toes. Really, really not sure how it can be October already… Balance – that’s a magic word. In photography as well as in life and everything else

      Reply
  2. Love the colors. I so miss fall. Decorating the house for fall helps a bit to bring the mood indoors.
    I’m always amazed how cropping can change a photo and sometimes what you originally framed in camera gets so much better with a crop. Hope all is well with you and David!

    Reply
    • Fall colors will always be amazing to me. Don’t you have another trip to the mountains of NC planned? If you time it right I’m sure you can catch fall there. And then get back to your sunny home. I believe that cropping is one of the most underrated photography tools. ‘Get as much as you can into a frame’ is definitely NOT what you want to be doing. But I know that you know that 🙂 We are good, thanks for asking. I still hope that one day you, Leslie and I will meet somewhere on this planet. Until then I love seeing all your updates on social.

      Reply
  3. Claudia, I can’t choose just one because they are all beautiful and I adore this time of year. You captured the beauty of fall in the simplest of ways and I love it. I hope your week is going well. Love and hugs!

    Reply
  4. I love this photo so much – in all it’s forms, but the middle one is my favourite. It’s the one enlarged too I believe – and it is such great composition and light. The bright red, the bit of gold in the foreground and the line of green in the back; but the maple leaf still is the focus which of course makes this Canadian happy lol. I have sooo much Fall colour on my camera right now! Thanksgiving weekend camping was definitely about stopping and enjoying the amazing artistry of Nature.

    Reply

Leave a Reply to Rhonda AlbomCancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.