Recently there's been a smattering of crop talk – namely, the amount of cropping on LF film (4x5 and larger) that might push an image outside the realm of LF and make it unreasonable to post in our "Image Sharing (LF)" forum.
Naturally, this might leave one curious, and raise questions about how a well-intentioned poster might judge his or her cropped image before posting it to a suitable forum.
For example, I'd enjoy hearing how you judge whether one of your crops "crosses the line," and might find a better home in, say, the "Image Sharing (Everything Else)" forum. On the other hand, do you believe that any crop from LF film, no matter how big or small the crop is, qualifies as an LF image for posting purposes?
As most here know, our re-freshened guidelines contain no formal rules about where this line exists, but moderators have indicated that we should be thinking about it. To be sure, their (informal) position on the matter appears to be fair and liberal to me, judging by the latest statement I can find about it: "...Ken and I [moderators] agree that we prefer judgment over rules on cropping," Rick says. "If you see a post that you think is unreasonable, please report it rather than policing it." (I'll stick with my "fair and liberal" assessment, but I'll also remark on the potential ambiguity here, or what some might describe as an overly-generous space for interpretation.)
Quick questions I'd enjoy hearing your thoughts about :
- If you post cropped images here, at what point do you think it becomes "unreasonable" to post them in our LF-centered forums?
- Do you arrive at this judgment quantitatively, or only subjectively?
- Is there a "transitional" type of crop you think is "reasonable" for LF, but in need of clear identification as a crop, or even how much of a crop it is?
- And finally, might your artistic aims for a particular crop change the criteria by which you judge it?
Bookmarks