Cropping For Emphasis

I wanted to crop this shot of a quiz bowl during the IFT convention in New Orleans in 2014 to put emphasis on the contestants while using the judges in the foreground for depth and perspective. For that reason I used the crop on the right. The crop on the left puts the judges closet to the center and, to me, puts more visual emphasis on the front row than the contestants. You may find that trying a few cays of cropping a photo gives you a new idea of what will work best for your intentions.

Get Back To Get Level

I've learned to have a long lens, usually Canon's 70-200, with me when shooting speakers at conventions. It allows me to get farther from the podium and, thereby, reduce the angle between my lens and the speaker. With that move plus the long lens plus a little developing I can make my shot of the speaker look more like I was close and at eye level.

Notice the different angles from these distances.