Chopped Redheads

I have been studying and practicing photography for nearly as long as I have been working on computers – about four decades at this writing. In all that time, one of the lessons I have learned is that photographers should not awkwardly cut out body elements in pictures.

Recently I supported a coffee table book on Kickstarter for portraits of ladies with red hair.¹ I’m not concerned about the fact the book was received three months later than promised. I am not concerned about not getting the promised backer credit.

I am upset about the poor placement of the models within the frame. No – not artistic license with framing the picture. The problem is the placement within the book.

Several photographs span two pages, with the model’s main features crossing the absolute center. Having the person’s head and torso on one page, with the legs on the other page is okay. Cutting their face in half is not good. The binding of the pages distorts the image. In the example to the right, the poor girl is missing a significant portion of her face.

Shown left, the binding seam is near the edge of her face, but with the natural curve created by the binding, about one-third of her head is missing, as well as her fingers.

Other examples in this book slice through eyes and cheeks.

Besides the several images ruined by poor placement, this book is loaded with over one-hundred great images of beautiful red-haired women from around the world – Ireland, Austria, Czechia, Italy, Hungary, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Poland, Slovakia, Russia, Ukraine, England, Scotland,Brazil, Canada, Australia and United States.

My simple advice to photographers – be mindful of the placement of portraits when you print books.

I highly recommend acdsee for your photo viewing and editing needs!

1. Redhead Beauty by Brian Dowling. Images shown here are displayed within acceptable use terms of United States and International Copyright Laws