Which UI treament of a large photo is more successful?

Question

I am about to launch a beer app on Facebook, and while it's a minor detail, I am deciding between two ways to display the photo:

Option 1:

http://cl.ly/082D0I3A1u0S0W0S1x2w

Padding is less than the body text, but a little edge remains so it's clear that this is all one post. The advantage of this may be the variety it creates, and the nice large size for a photo?

Option 2:

http://cl.ly/3R0M261p2Z2V0x0F211b

Padding is the same on the photo as the rest of the content, resulting in more breathing room between each post in the feed.

Answer 1

In contrast to @Erics, my instinctive response is to use the smaller margins. While I understand the reasons for consistency, I think the requirement here is to show the photo as large as can be managed, to give the best possible detail.

I don;t think you lose the connectivity, but what it does do, for me, is extend the scope of the printed text to include some white space at the start - so the margin line continues from the photo down.

The larger margins look to me like wasting space. It is like having thicker glass on the beer glasses - it may make them stronger, but I want the content, not the glass.

Answer 2

My instinctive response is to keep the padding consistent, just on aesthetics.

This could partly be explained by the closure gestalt principle as well as the proximity principle .. having the edges out of alignment makes the images appear further away.

Also, consider how the eye may track down the page - with the ragged edge presented by the bulging images there is no smooth direct line, instead the eye has to bump out and bump back in again.