Need help cropping these

I shot a friend's 40th b-day party tonight (just for fun), had a blast, but it was a tough shoot. Tiny cramped kitchen, and all the walls are covered with stuff - pictures, swags, flower arrangements, you name it. So I'm finding the backgrounds very distracting.

OR, are they just part of the overall mood of the party? It was at my friend's house in *her* kitchen, which we all know, and love, and recognize. Should I just let that stuff integrate into the pictures? My friend looked positively beautiful - she's going to love the shots of herself. No PP done yet.

I don't want them to just look like snapshots. Here are a couple of examples to give you an idea what I'm struggling with. These aren't the best of the bunch, some of them are soft, but I just started with a few because I was getting frustrated very quickly. They are basically SOOC with some attempts at crops on a couple. I have no idea how to crop these with SO much going on in the BG.

Any suggestions greatly appreciated!

Sorry about the broken links. They will be fixed momentarily.

Sydney Rester said:

Sorry about the broken links. They will be fixed momentarily.

Click to expand...

Which one's will be fixed, the ones above, or are these, those?




Sydney,

In general, I don't think it's the crop that's the issue just the challenge of going beyond a family type snapshot of great personal value to a picture which also stirs feelings in others. For a memento, these may be perfect. However that's it.






This one picture, however, has a lot of energy and life n it and it's a candidate for a B&W version which will be more impressive. The colors, IMHO, don't add much and it might be that you'll like a B&W presentation better.

Asher