Post by @Alice@beige.party

RE: https://beige.party/@Alice/117520177534129261

This conversation has made me think an idea for a website or app where people can post high quality uncropped photos and then the users are given a timed challenge (e.g., one day, one week, etc.) to crop them however they think is best and then they can upload their final version, but nothing will publish until that set time so the edited versions all go up together to ensure no one version influences another.

I think it would be fun to compare and contrast and see how many were cropped in a similar manner and how many others focused on something completely different.

Anyone with the skills is more than welcome to take this idea and run with it as long as they link me to it when they're done so I can play along.

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Dr. Unabart :vepi: :jrbd:

@Unabart@dobbs.town 1 hr. ago

@Alice This should be called “Croptacular”. That is all.

Alice McFlurry :bc:

@Alice@beige.party 1 hr. ago

@Unabart What, was CropDuster already taken? Then surely CropDustr is available.

@Krumple_Footskin

Dr. Unabart :vepi: :jrbd:

@Unabart@dobbs.town 60 min. ago

@Alice @Krumple_Footskin Also a completely valid name!

Ricker M

@Krumple_Footskin@mastodon.social 2 hr. ago

@Alice Well, I'll bite. I'm a web dev and I'm in-between projects, so this might be fun. Would you be willing to test a demo version when it's ready?

I'm thinking of calling it...

Holy Crop!

Users will be able to crop at any size and ratio. Then after the period is up, all the crops will be revealed (maybe with a heat map or something to show how most users cropped it) and anyone can vote for their fav. Maybe the competition aspect is less attractive than finding unique crops.

Alice McFlurry :bc:

@Alice@beige.party 2 hr. ago

@Krumple_Footskin That's a good idea! It would be cool if there wasn't even downloading/uploading of the image and instead you're just taking the image as it is on the screen and cropping directly from within the app, saving, and then they all auto-publish at the same time.

Ricker M

@Krumple_Footskin@mastodon.social 2 hr. ago

@Alice Yes! That's the plan. All handled within the app. Are you down with any ratio cropping, or should we force 1:1?

Alice McFlurry :bc:

@Alice@beige.party 1 hr. ago

@Krumple_Footskin I personally prefer 1:1 and I think it makes it more challenging and would make the comparisons look "cooler" in a proper grid, but I know other people don’t have my same OCD, so I think it's fair to allow any cropping ratio.

Here are things that I think would be nice features to have, if possible:

Preset crops in addition to freeform like square, 4x6, 8x10, etc. and the ability to switch between portrait and landscape.

The ability to rotate up to 360 degrees with 90 degree stops in between

A grid (at least 3x3)

1 more reply

Log 🪵

@log@mastodon.sdf.org 2 hr. ago

@Alice Public domain and CC source materials can yield quite a lot of judge-comparable derivative works from
+ rectangular cropping
+ exotic cropping and framing
+ clipping out discrete image elements
+ captioning and descriptive alt-text
+ collage composition
+ color remapping

Fark occasionally invites users to all manipulate the same base image, but the site format isn't exactly geared towards structure or purpose in doing so. Some results are worth seeing, sometimes.

Daniel Durrans

@dan@mastodon.durrans.com 3 hr. ago

@Alice I have taken a liberty but… I feel landscape works better for this. I wanted to keep the tree as it adds this tension as the only living thing in the built environment. I have this lovely Kodachrome preset that I used on it too.

I love the subject… it is so rare I see a place like this out in the wild.

A red brick building with a sign reading "WONDER BREAD AND HOSTESS CAKE" under a blue sky.

Alice McFlurry :bc:

@Alice@beige.party 2 hr. ago

@dan Yeah, I always go with squares because I find 1:1 ratios comforting. I also think it's more challenging to stay within a 1:1 ratio which is something I enjoy because otherwise you can just drag the edges to wherever you want which kind of feels like cheating.

As for the sides, I think the dumb U-HAUL location to the left takes away from the otherwise timeless appearance of the building so that was definitely first to go.

mkb

@mkb@mastodon.social 3 hr. ago

@Alice This sounds fun!

AlmostlyHarmless

@D3jaBr3w@beige.party 3 hr. ago

@Alice Wish I had the know-how to help you out, because that is a very creative idea. Hope it comes to fruition!