Hey street togs. Hey eric!
I’d like to ask for your opinion. Lately, I was kinda into cinematic look photography and now I’m kinda not sure if I should keep adding black border on top and bottom of the picture. I’m starting to think that it looks stupid. What do you think?
Hi!!
Personally I like the third one. With the others try to not cut the legs of the girl.
Personally I like the third one.
Hello! I agree with doscphoto! the third one is the one I prefer. I’d try to focus more on the scene if you want to cut the image 😉
I too agree that the third image is the best. Nice shot by the way.
No doubts a frame obliges the viewer to focus more on the center of the image. It all depends on how you’ll use your photos. Can I ask you what are you going to do with them? (Instagram, big print for a wall…)
In that case I would say that adding a frame is something appreciated in Instagram. But beware, there are pros and cons!
Pros:
– Who takes a look at your profile will see something much more balanced, with more space between the images, and could appreciate your entire work better, at least at a first glance, focusing more on the pictures because they are framed and separated from each other.
Cons:
– It may be annoying for the people who follow you to see on their feed your pictures with a frame. There it’s a different contex, where they are used to see big pictures, and they may skip a little bit smaller image just because they are not used to it.
At the end, I think that an Instagram profile without frames becomes a pure mess, with colors smashed next to each other (unless you don’t pay attention to the juxtaposition of every single photo you post, which is something really complicated but really stylish indeed). You have the downside of smaller images, but I don’t think that’s a big problem. I think it can force people to check your website, if you have, to have a look at bigger and better organized pictures. Frames are definitely a good idea, you just need to find a style that you like and suits your kind of photography.
My two cents.
I like the middle one best. I don’t mind the large letterbox look but I prefer a thin black border. Try a bunch of borders and have fun with it. Your background will play a part too. If it’s a black background, the border will disappear. Black borders can also add more time and labour to your workflow. Lightroom sucks because it only has the crappy round corner black border. You need a third party app for proper borders. Shooting a true cinematic aspect ratio (2.35:1) is very hard. As you’ve probably found out already, you have to take your time and frame more carefully and you need a lot of room. Especially when using a long lens. But anything between 16:9 and 2.55:1 is considered cinematic. From a technical perspective, content tends to be the most important part of the photo. The aspect ratio won’t save you. That’s why most movies suck. I only shoot 2.35:1 occasionally with photos because speed and timing are a huge factor when capturing a moment. But with movies I use 2.35:1 all the time because movies are made in a slow methodical way. You’re not trying to capture a story that occurs in a moment lasting 1/60 of a second, or less.
Like Mr Spock would have said “Your question is illogical” and here is why,
We all are different, we all have different tastes, some like red some like blue and some like curves and some squares, so photos are also a matter of tastes, some will say it’s ok some will say it’s not ok and some will say maybe. In the end you’ll end up worse than when you started. So it’s better to never ask anybody if your photos should be this way or that way, just do what you think is best and don’t look back, learn to trust your heart.
