Think Inside the Box – Cropping for Maximum Impact
Cropping. It’s pretty much the first thing you learn to do to edit a photo.
You don’t need Photoshop to crop (hey that rhymes!) – for goodness sake, even your phone can crop photos these days!
Cropping is the most powerful tool for editing but also the most dangerous because even a teeny weeny little cutting can entirely change the composition of your photo, it must be done with great care. But it’s not like you’re cutting up your only copy with scissors so you can also be brave!
Thirds – “The rule of the thirds” is the rule of thumb when composing a shot. If you miss composing it the way you want when taking the photo, no problem, just crop it! This is a great article by Darren Rowse about the rule of thirds.
Breaking the rule – In Darren’s post, he writes – “I will say however that rules are meant to be broken and ignoring this one doesn’t necessarily mean that your images are unbalanced or uninteresting. A wise person once told me that if you intend to break a rule, you should always learn it first to make sure you’re breaking of it is all the more effective.”
What an excellent saying! Once in a while, I feel a bit rebellious and I break the rule but I always do it blatantly.
I don’t bend the rule and crop in halves. I just place my subject smack bang in the middle to create a feeling of boldness and make a shot more in-your-face so that it cannot be ignored.
Leave it to fate – C’mon people it’s not permanent – take some chances! I know, I know, I’m a geek but I get a huge thrill out of cropping with my eyes closed.
Sometimes when you don’t think about what you’re doing, it can give some really amazing results you never thought of on your own.
In Google’s Picasa program, there’s even a setting to let it suggest a few cool crops for your photo. The crop on this photo I took last week was a total fluke but it ended up being one of my favorites!
Rotate as you crop – Most programs have an option to rotate as you crop. Rotating an image gives it a sense of motion. A running child suddenly looks like a superhero!
Cropping is sheer magic. It allows you a second chance to recompose your shot or to take an already perfect photo and make a second shot out of the first which has an entirely different composition, feel or perspective.
I would recommend never ever cropping on your camera screen. Some cameras offer this option. And sometimes, it’s best to just leave well enough alone. As an editing addict, I often have to restrain myself from destroying an already wonderful image.
Be brave and happy cropping!
How do you approach cropping? Feel free to share some of your favorite cropped shots in the share your shots section of our forum or by leaving a link to them on your favorite photo sharing site in comments below.
10 Responses to “Think Inside the Box – Cropping for Maximum Impact” - Add Yours
September 17th, 2009 at 7:54 am
hey :) great article !!
correct me if i’m wrong but i think you meant “chance” in the third paragraph from the bottom….”it allows you a second chance to recompose your shot” ^_^ not that it matters really the meaning is pretty obv :P
one question, you know how you can either crop in certain ratios (to ultimately get a rectangle shape) or the picture won’t look right ? how can you crop to a square and still make the picture look natural ? or is that an unbreakable rule -_- ?
September 17th, 2009 at 7:56 am
now that i think about it, the rectangle ratio is in no way a rule….i just noticed the pictures above are all squares !!! i think it is because the rule of thirds dictates a triangle cropping therefore i rarely use it :(
September 17th, 2009 at 8:18 am
Oh oops you’re right about ‘chance’ thanks for that! I really love squares and there are consumer photo printers like photobox.com who now print squares so even the average joe can shake it up a bit. And the rule of thirds can absolutely apply to squares as in my top image with the candle and the grid. Anything can be cut into thirds.
September 17th, 2009 at 10:17 am
If everyone crops inside the box I’ll have to stard thinking outside of another box.
September 17th, 2009 at 10:18 am
If everyone crops inside the box I’ll have to start thinking outside of another box.
September 17th, 2009 at 11:20 am
I do find cropping to be essential. Combined with the Mpix and resolution of modern cameras, it gives you an astounding degree of freedom. I often find treasures in old pictures I didn’t like to much at first.
Here’s a colorful Japanese shrine roof, for example, really nice after some cropping:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/focx/3859154982/
This rusty old ladder for example wouldn’t feel like one in a normal-sized picture:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/focx/3817848746/
And feel free to have a look at my photostream on flickr :)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/focx/
September 17th, 2009 at 3:16 pm
Right crop is a surgeons tools – You must be very delicate, precise and not overdo it.
It’s very hard to break the rules of composition in a way that will still look ‘right’.
Sometimes, cropping/zooming is great for story telling – http://www.ilanbresler.com/2009/06/love-story.html which is another example that maybe missing from the post.
But again – It’s always should be very precise. “Bad” crop can ruin a perfectly good photo.
September 18th, 2009 at 3:06 am
Fun article! Love it! Funny – I’m such a Photoshop snob that I never even consider that a program like Picasa could have some fun or useful features! LOL!
Thanks for the enlightenment!
Susan
September 23rd, 2009 at 2:02 pm
Rules are meant to be broken anyway, but this article serves as a very good guide to the commonly used tool (for me that is). I am using Google’s freeware photo editior, Picasa 3, to manage the crop, rotate and other simple adjustment.
September 25th, 2009 at 4:08 am
I leave lots of room in my pictures for Cropping. That is one thing that I don’t always try to “get it right in the camera”.
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