One-Minute Reads about Film Photography

Something to pay attention to when cropping photos.

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I love perusing the r/analog community on Reddit where there are some really nice photos from film photography enthusiasts. I quite often pick up some good ideas in this forum, but its also just fun to see what a new generation of photographers is doing with old film cameras.

There is one thing though that I quite often see in many photos, and that is an horizon that isn’t truly horizontal (when it should be…exceptions apply.) Or, vertical or horizontal elements that aren’t aligned to the frame edges (again, this isn’t always necessary.)

In my post-production process after scanning film, one of the first steps I do on any image is pull in some ruler guides to the important part(s) of the photo that may include vertical and horizontal lines, and that all important horizon in the background. Rarely have I not done a small rotation of the image, sometimes as little as a half degree or so. Sometimes 2-3 degrees, as I can rarely take a straight photo (LOL)!

Spending some time evaluating the crop then is the next step, and that’s an entirely different discussion.

This one step can improve the end result of a photo by removing a potential distraction from the viewer. Happy shooting and editing!

• gregory gammon / www.vinylfye.com