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Cut Off Heads
Do you prefer images where the top of the subject's head is cut off (either by composition or cropping)? Why or why not? Jul 02 14 09:44 am Link Sometimes cropping the top of the head works well to accentuate the eyes and face Jul 02 14 09:46 am Link It depends. Sometimes unavoidable distractions or screw ups need to be cropped from an image, so the framing gets tightened up. (I didn't see that false attachment through the view finder - dag nabbit!) Sometimes I want to showcase just the face or face and neck of the model. I think "head-chopping is fairly common in beauty images for this reason. Sometimes the image needs to be cropped or framed down to give it balance. Generally though, images shouldn't chop people's heads off. Jul 02 14 09:53 am Link Lovely Day Media wrote: I do not prefer them. Jul 02 14 09:58 am Link There are many portraits where the top of the head is cut off. It is intentional in many cases. Now if it is a full body shot, keep the head in the frame. Composing an image is about lines and placement. Sometimes the top of the head is better out of frame to place the eyes and mouth in the right spots and it also depends on the pose. A tight crop can sometimes tell the story better than showing the entire head. Jul 02 14 10:06 am Link With the viewfinders in some cameras it's just what you get unless your paying attention. It's seldom preferable though. Jul 02 14 10:18 am Link Every image has it's own needs, and, sometimes, that requires an "odd" cropping. Usually, though, I would say that it is better if every limb is included in the image. Cropping out ANY part of a model's body often, if not usually, leads the eye off the subject, and/or, off the page. -Don EDIT: Below, it was stated that cropping off the top of the head, more often works with portraits than full body shots. I would tend to agree, though, like I said, every image has it's own requirements, in order to make the composition work. Jul 02 14 10:19 am Link I hate it in almost every case. Jul 02 14 10:33 am Link I do it a lot. Seems to work for me. I often find the composition more pleasing. Go figure. Jul 02 14 10:45 am Link http://img.izismile.com/img/img3/201007 … 640_13.jpg http://smokingdesigners.com/wp-content/ … ers-05.jpg http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Xt2zx54laSA/S … nro_02.jpg http://www.zillamag.com/wp-content/uplo … ler-25.jpg http://img.izifunny.com/pics/20120321/6 … -59_28.jpg http://31.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mdeyy … o1_400.jpg just a few examples of the top of the head being cut off.... sometimes the face is more important. Jul 02 14 10:58 am Link For me it depends on the rest of the cropping and the overall intent as well. A full body shot most probably wouldn't look right with the top part of the head only cropped off. It may look more balanced with a portrait. If the shot is about the human form and not the person, such as a bodyscape, I sometimes prefer the head or face to not show at all. Jul 02 14 11:00 am Link I do it often when it improves the shot, nothing you would do for a hair campaign mind you but for other beauty work it's makes sense. As Gary already mentioned, if the focus is someone's eyes or lipstick for example. Jul 02 14 11:12 am Link It depends on the overall composition. It happens a lot in beauty images simply because the crops are so close. In fashion though and wider shots it just looks weird. I feel like as long as the eyes are around the focus points with the rule of thirds then I don't mind much, but otherwise the image can feel top heavy or something. It can also make the forehead look large if you don't crop off the right amount. It really just works in some images and not in others. Jul 02 14 11:15 am Link Peter House wrote: This. Jul 02 14 11:37 am Link Very tight cropping seems to be de rigueur for actors' headshots nowadays. Personally, I generally don't like it. Jul 02 14 11:51 am Link And here I jumped to the conclusion that we were talking about full on decapitation. Which I actually approve of, in a fine art kind of sense. If the head/face is distracting or not important, then it shouldn't be in the photo. But ya, pretty much what everyone else said - depends on the composition. Jul 02 14 01:22 pm Link Personally, I don't like it at all. I understand what some have said. For instance, if the focus is someone's eyes or lips, the head might get cut off. For me, in those instances where the focus is on the eyes so the head gets cut off, their nose and mouth also get cropped out of the picture. If the focus is their lips, one won't see their nose or chin. If I ever shoot a picture where it would "look better" with the head cut off, no one will ever see that picture. Something is wrong with it. I agree that I disagree with some others here but that's part of the beauty of art. Jul 02 14 01:33 pm Link I've done paintings where I've cropped the head that I regret now- I think it can work on close ups but that's about it. It seems to be a trend lately though, I see a lot of head cropping. Jul 02 14 02:55 pm Link i prefer images which are good. which could include tight cropping to focus more on the face. we had one senior mom flip out a bit when we cropped her kid's head, though. Jul 02 14 02:57 pm Link I do it a lot and I do it deliberately. I prefer it. I really like tight crops. I actually hate empty space above the head. for example including the top of the head would have ruined the composition  Jul 02 14 03:02 pm Link DougBPhoto wrote: Hey I know what the hell I am doing Jul 02 14 03:04 pm Link Peter House wrote: +1 Jul 02 14 03:05 pm Link I hate it, hate it, hate it. Only works in very few cases and best when the face is cropped tight so you also take out the ears and end of the chin. How many people do you see walking around with the top of their heads cut off ? Jul 02 14 03:21 pm Link A-M-P wrote: For you specifically, I stopped wondering years ago, same for a few other people. Jul 02 14 05:30 pm Link Isis22 wrote: +1 Jul 02 14 05:37 pm Link When it comes to composing headshots or beauty, sometimes the cropping of the head makes a photograph far more dynamic than a simple boring headshot. If that DIDN'T work all of the big beauty campaigns out there would be boring. Does it work all the time? No. There is a right and wrong way of doing what I like to call a dynamic crop (either in camera, or in post). In some instances it can make a totally humdrum photograph that you would've COMPLETELY ignored into a stellar final image... Off with their heads!!!! www.dallasjlogan.com  Jul 02 14 05:49 pm Link toesup wrote: I'll admit to having amputated toes and fingers. Part of it is due to previous inexperience, part due to not knowing that what I see in the viewfinder isn't what I'm going to get. The other 90% is due to not paying attention to that (too busy looking at other things and/or trying to hurry along). Jul 02 14 06:01 pm Link This is one of my favorite images, I cut off the top of her head and then some  Jul 02 14 06:14 pm Link DougBPhoto wrote: To you it may look like the photographer sucks at cropping. To those of us that understand the rules and know how and when to break them, it is another tool for creating impact, intimacy and yes, dynamic composition. Jul 02 14 06:20 pm Link EvergreenPhotography wrote: The head is cropped in your avatar... Jul 02 14 08:18 pm Link AJScalzitti wrote: niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice Jul 02 14 08:50 pm Link bmiSTUDIO wrote: ditto Jul 02 14 08:51 pm Link sometimes it works and sometimes it does not....depends on the purpose of the image....if the comp works cropped that way, it works, if not, then critique will go all out on the comp for cropping...go figure...Mo Jul 02 14 08:55 pm Link I would only crop the top of the head in an extreme closeup, when the purpose is to draw attention to only the subject's face. As the shot is pulled back to include more of the body, I feel the head should not be cropped. The same goes for other body parts in full length shots. My guide is, never crop, unless you have a specific reason to do so, and, in those cases, do so in acceptable ways. (not finger tips, toes, avoid joints, etc.) Unfortunately, in a huge number of cases on here, I see such cropping, that is obviously from either carelessness, inexperience, or bad composition choices. In this digital age, I don't buy the inacurate viewfinder excuse, since they should realize that after the first 2 shots with the camera, and should just shoot wider to allow for it. Then, recropping in post will easily give the better result, rather than just settling for something less. Jul 02 14 09:40 pm Link Lovely Day Media wrote: No. And I do it deliberately very often. Jul 02 14 09:53 pm Link There are times when it works - and times when it doesn't. I think the technique is over-used - and often people seem to pick the "wrong" places to crop. Generally it works best when the model's head is straight (not tilted to either side) and when the model is directly facing the camera. It may work if the model is not directly facing the camera, but it's less likely to. Personally I'm more likely to like a shot if it's cropped half an inch to an inch below the model's hairline. (I'm not saying that's *always* the best place to crop.) In particular, I recall a shot where the model's head was tilted at about a 45-degree angle to camera left (the model's right). Her head came to a point in the upper left corner of the photo. Reminds me of the movie, "Coneheads." Jul 02 14 10:17 pm Link It depends but on my site I generally have them cutoff or a really tight crop and after the trip I'm going to be more busy than ever with headshots. So someone likes them, and people like to pay me for them, so hey, can't really argue with that. I usually give the clients a tight cropped 8x10 and the file as it was out of the camera for their cropping. That leaves more options open for it's use and makes life easier on us as we're shooting it. But again, I really don't have an opinion about it other than it seems tighter crops are in right now and that gets me paid, so I'll keep doing it. If things swing back to looser crops then I would be more than happy to do that, and get paid for doing it. Andrew Thomas Evans www.andrewthomasevans.com Jul 03 14 09:59 am Link I prefer the whole head cropped out. A good portrait ends at the neck. Jul 03 14 12:07 pm Link Lovely Day Media wrote: Depends on who's head it is Jul 03 14 12:12 pm Link I really hate it. There are only a few times it works and very few at that. It's unnatural. And if you are going to cut off the top of the head it's for a tight crop of the face, not the top of the head is missing but the bottom of the photo goes down to the belly button ( or on MM, the breasts. Seems they'll crop out anything as long as the breasts are still there.). Jul 03 14 12:16 pm Link |
or worse.
