Last year I published a series of different crops of a picture on the old site. A nice way to use the blog function here to maybe start a new discussion about it ;) (and it is better to view them all on one page).
OK, first the pictures:
The first one is the original crop. It was a little bit boring, esp. the RAW workflow was not perfect. The sqaured version emphasizes the beautiful sky but on the other hand the powerful river (it was a flood at this time) is lost and the city on the other side gets too much attention for me. The archer stands out less as well.
Sometimes I like golden rectangle compostitions as the bottom ones are. The left one is more or less a changed crop of the squared version. The archer is more pronounced and the city on the other side of the river is less important. Still missing is the power of the water (you have to know the place to see it) and the sky looses some of its power as well.
Because of that there is a forth crop. It's almost the original but in golden rectangle (approx. 3×5 instead of 2×3). The better RAW processing make the water look muddier (caused by the flood), the sky more magnificient and the cropping gives the balance I wanted to achieve on this shot: the archer is a little bit lost in all the water but still prominent, the city is just a hint in the far.
So what do you think? Yes, critique is welcome!