While I sometimes crop digital photos to a panoramic ratio, it not something I tend to do with film photographs which, outside of a little straightening, or minor bits of resizing to remove edge-of-frame distractions, I tend to not crop at all.
However, when looking at the scans of some of the photos I took with my Bronica ETRSi at this year’s Sheffield Steam Rally, I realised that large swathes of the top and bottom of the images were filled with uninteresting sky and grass, so I decided to see how they would look with that stuff cropped out. Turns out they looked pretty nice, I thought, so here they are today.
I think it helps that the 75mm Zenzanon lens is very sharp, and that Acros is a fine-grained film, but it’s something I’ll remember next time my in-camera framing doesn’t quite hit the mark.
Bronica ETRSi, Zenzanon 75mm f/2.8 PE, & Fujifilm Acros. Ilfotec DD-X 1+9 14mins 45secs @ 20°
Taken 24 June 2023.




While I tend to do minimal cropping, etc with my own film photos, I have absolutely no compunction about doing it if it serves the image. The whole debate seems utterly pointless to me. Yes, of course, I try to get it right in camera, but the image is king. If it serves the image, it’s the right thing to do.
LikeLiked by 1 person