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The tops of peoples heads...
I've noticed in a lot of peoples shots, the top of their heads are cut off. Can you guys tell me why it's done? Just curious...thanks! -Jess Jul 15 05 10:05 pm Link I see it as a fashiony thing.... but I will be disagreeded with I am sure... I do it - and when I do people hate it - then like it - then hate it later.... Then when i do not do it - they ask why I didn;t.. It also works if you are trying to frame a certain area - much like the header photo here at MM Jul 15 05 10:17 pm Link Posted by Jessica L: Though there are more technical reasons as well, my main reason is make the models look bigger than life, or at least the picture. Plus, unless you have a good hair stylist, the top of a persons head isn't all that exciting. especially since the main focus is usually the eyes. (this is multiplied a bunch for head shots) There are also rule of third issuses and what not, but I like the larger than life aspect the most. Jul 15 05 10:21 pm Link Posted by Jessica L: Because they are talentless hacks who can't frame a shot then pawn it off as "artistic license"? Jul 15 05 10:23 pm Link Eric...look what I did! I took this of myself the other night and I cut the top of my head off...now I fit in!lol J/K! https://www.modelmayhem.com/pic.php?pic … 70bb824825 Jul 15 05 10:29 pm Link It also takes it away from that portrait look. Jul 15 05 10:39 pm Link I too have noticed photos with models and chopped heads. Some will call it 'style', others 'sloppy work'. Perhaps I'm too much from the old school, but I'm firmly in the latter camp for my opinion. Models, come to Oregon, and I will show the world you do have something above the eyebrows! Jul 15 05 10:41 pm Link I don't know how legal it is to use another MM (a brand new one) as an example of the top of the head crop. But here goes. [img]http://www.modelmayhem.com/pics/20050715/3/42d87ca7c814b.jpg[/imh] This new photographer is Frank Rocco (18994). This is not the only one he has cropped in his port. There is another one. But I think this one is the best of the two. When Life Magazine was the king of picture magazines (30s until the "modern" era around the late 60s) it came out as a big magazine with big covers with plenty of room. Its star photographer Philippe Halsman took at least 100 of these covers. The most memorable (to me) was one of Grace Kelly that hast to be one of the most beautiful pictures of a woman ever taken (I fell hard). Then magazines got smaller and the cosmetic companies started spending more money. So magazines like Vogue and other fashion magazines started emphasizing the eyes of models with dramatic crops just over the eyebrows (if it's more it's no good). By the 80s and 90s it became a common sight. But if some local photographer in Dubuque had photographed some young lady or boy and presented his or her mother (with such a crop) he would have been driven from town. A few years ago I attended a meeting in which I was to explain to the campaing office of a man who was to be Premier of British Columbia how I was going to shoot the campaign poster and brochure propaganda. I suggested (and this was readily accepted) that I would photograph Mike Harcour chopped over his eybrows so as not to over emphasize his baldness. The resulting poster was seen as cutting edge modernity and the man (in spite of my poster) won. Jul 15 05 10:42 pm Link Oop! Let's try that again. Here it is Frank Rocco (18994)  Jul 15 05 10:45 pm Link It forces a more dynamic composition and assertive feel in certain situations. It can get over used, just like the hundreds of shooters who twist their camera at a 45 degree angle and shoot a model from above to make it look "edgy". Just goes to show: that which defies convention, ultimately becomes convention. Jul 15 05 10:48 pm Link if you want portraits..go to sears... an artist will typically show you what he wants you to see... i want you to see eyes..the top of someone head is not important..it doesn't add to the imagery..so it can be left out.. well at least thats why i crop off the top of heads.. cropping has been going on for hundreds of years..look at venus di milo Jul 15 05 10:49 pm Link Another cutoff but photoshopped.  Jul 15 05 10:52 pm Link Good reasons and examples too. OK now another part to the question 'cause I have a shoot Sunday and we're going for something different than what I have a lot of. (Some edgier and more artistic shots.) Do you think this technique is more for commercial or artistic use? I ask because I see it used in both? Is this one of those things that can work in any type of shoot? Well..except for Sears maybe..lol Jul 15 05 10:53 pm Link Jessica you are 16. At this stage in your career I would suspect you would like to look 20. Drama will help in making you look older. Your bangs lend themselves to the had crop for one very good reason. The crop, to be effective has to be just above your eyebrows. If you show a lot of white forehead it looks bad. The exception is found in bangs. And you have these in spades. And I would nod down (point your nose a bit down) for at least one of the shots.  Jul 15 05 11:01 pm Link WOH! LOL That was wierd...I scrolled down and BAM! There was my face!LOL Thanks so much as always Alex. You've been really nice and supportive since I came here a couple weeks ago. Your advice, as well as so many others is going a long way, trust me. I'll remember that Sunday too. Jul 15 05 11:06 pm Link Posted by alexwh: what a beautiful young woman... Jul 15 05 11:07 pm Link Interesting topic. I've always wondered about it too. My portrait training taught me that the eyes in a headshot should be 1/3 of the way down the print. Obviously when you chop the head, the eyes move way up to the top. I should get Doug to teach me the finer points of thsi stuff. I don't tilt them either. Paul Jul 15 05 11:15 pm Link I was taught all the "rules" of photography, and I understand the psychology behind these rules, but when I'm shooting, I shoot what I like/feel. In any form of art, rules are in your mind to use, or not, as you choose. If you at least understand the thought process behind them, you understand how to critically look at an image and get the viewer to react to your images. Rick's quasi eastern philosophical theory of a photographic image follows...LOL I feel a photo has to visually appeal to one of three "chakras", 1) your head--the intellectual center 2) your heart--the emotional center 3) your crotch--the instinctive (or maybe primitive) center (....I know, I know, they overlap in most people, being susceptible to the vagaries that "chakras" are in poorly constructed philosophical theories) but that's my take on "rules" in any art form I figure if I can make an image that appeals to one "chakra", that's cool. If you can get to hit on 2, you've something better, and if you react at all 3, yowzah! take it for what it's worth...or not...and hurl spitballs of derision at me...... Jul 15 05 11:44 pm Link Greetings, I do it because I like doing it! Take care, AJ Jul 16 05 01:47 am Link Posted by Jessica L: Well, many of my models lack scalps or are missing limbs, so rather than embarrass them, I simply cut off the missing parts. Jul 16 05 02:03 am Link Because the top of the head is boring, and if you don't crop it sometimes the photos will look like yearbook pictures. The photo is only a window into the world. When you look out the window you look at interesting things. In my avatar, the model is in motion because of the crop. Having to keep the top of the head in the photo all the time is an artistic limitation. Jul 16 05 02:09 am Link Posted by alexwh: wait, are you telling me the above photo is actually of the Premier of British Columbia? And it's a bald dude? Jul 16 05 02:18 am Link You crop of certain things to make other things stand out. When you have a full head and shoulders shot, you focus on the whole picture. When you crop the top of the head off, you focus more on the face. When people view an image, they start from the top and work thier way down. It's all about the composition. Jul 16 05 04:44 am Link What? No model lobotomy jokes?  Jul 16 05 06:09 am Link Can you guys tell me why it's done? Just curious...thanks! -Jess ...I use the auto-crop button and my photoshop does it all by itself! (now everyone's scratching they're heads looking for that button) Jul 16 05 06:47 am Link oooops this string is about cropped heads, sorry, I thought it was about cropped legs. Jul 16 05 06:50 am Link oooops this string is about cropped heads, sorry, I thought it was about cropped legs. Jul 16 05 06:51 am Link Posted by Rick Edwards: 101 ! Jul 16 05 07:14 am Link I often do it without even thinking much about it. When I do it to portraits of the kids, my wife complains about it... I tend to go for the eyes and find the top of the head boring. So, one part goes and the other gets more emphasis. Jul 16 05 07:30 am Link Posted by Anjel Britt: Posted by Rick Edwards: 101 ! told you it was quasi... Jul 16 05 06:00 pm Link bad hair cut? Jul 16 05 06:01 pm Link Posted by Louis Braga: heh. I was gonna say...lop-sided head? Jul 16 05 06:07 pm Link The photographer shoot what he sees in the frame. What the photographer is looking at. So..... But one of the first major uses of the style in music videos and which influences photography style for a time was the mid 80's videos of CC music factory and others. I am sorry that I do not have the directors name. But he made a conscious well thought out decision to do it that way. (I am not saying it was the first time it was used but it was a change at that time and became very popular for a few years.) Jul 16 05 06:07 pm Link Sometimes if they have a big forehead that's not covered with bangs you it can make for a more flattering image. Jul 16 05 06:13 pm Link |
