Compose your picture in the camera. Its excellent advice, and we all have it in mind with each picture we take. Yet, when reviewing the shots, on the computer, I regularly find myself resorting to the crop tool as a means of enhancing the composition of the image I had originally intended.
This lead me to thinking about image mining (looking for small pictures buried within the original shot) and wondering what I else might be able to find. Nothing new I'm sure, but worth an experiment to see what pictures were lurking undiscovered.
The aim was to find pictures that would stand up in their own right, even if the technical quality is lower than usual.
Setting an arbitray target of no more than 10% of the original capture the search began.
Having recently had the opportunity to shoot pictures of a fashion show at the local college I limited the search to pictures from the catwalk. I had attempted to shoot as many models/outfits as I could; consequently I was shooting at the rate of 1 exposure every 10 seconds throughout the show. On this occasion composition in the camera was about not chopping the heads off the models.
Conclusion: It is certainly worth looking closely at every image captured, there may be unexpected gems skulking in the corners.
Tech Notes
The camera, a Canon 1Ds is blessed with a large sensor so a 90% crop is not as extreme as it might sound. The sensor was rated at 800 ASA due to using available stage light, and the need to hand hold the camera. The lens was Canon's 70-200 mm zoom.
I have been interested in photography on and off since my teenage years, but it is only since I was made redundant six months ago, and elected to take early retirement that I have become really serious about it. I used the redundancy money to buy my dream camera (Canon 1Ds) and have taken on average over 50 pictures a day since it arrived. I'm a full time amateur photographer who aspires to take better pictures.