[MayDay]

Maybe we should have a thread about 'How would you edit this photo?' - where forumers post a 'straight from the camera' shot in JPG format (for god's sake, in a reasonably sized format like no more than 1000 pixels in either height or width at 80 dpi?) and then those who can, edit the photo how they think it should be? Maybe the OP can offer a few lines of "I took this photo, trying to capture _______, and here are a few points of context" and let the editing folks run with it?

That said - glowrock, consider the focus of your photos; if you're focusing on one subject, i.e. a portrait - think of it as showing a performer on a stage. If you crop in too tightly, they have no stage for the 'magic' to show - if you don't crop enough, they get lost. When it comes to portrait or single-subject shots a good rule of thumb is 75% of the shot should be allocated for the subject. I noticed in some of the shots in your Cleveland thread with the West Side Market - part of the magic of the market is the backdrop. For example, the gal with the short-cropped hair at the Cheese Shop? Waaay too tight on the cropping, especially when you consider her surroundings - polished subway tile, the 'landscape' of cheeses, etc. Give me some time and I'll go through my archives and find examples.