As a good rule of thumb, when cropping images of people, do not crop at a joint (elbow, knee, wrist). Typically when people are cropped at a joint it makes them look really funny and like they are an amputee or something. When cropping images of people try and do so between joints and use cropping to flatter body types.

A tool I recommend to people new to cropping is Snapfish. Snapfish offers a whole range of tools suited to digital photography beginners and hobbyists. Check out Snapfish Labs here: http://www.hp.com/idealab/us/en/snapfish.html

Happy shooting and editing!

For example, if the vantage point you want to shoot a scene from is in the middle of a lake, shooting from the other side and cropping is a lower-cost alternative than hiring a boat. With a target resolution that’s small enough and a sensor that has enough megapixels, this is a totally workable, if un-ideal solution.

In my case, I shoot mainly sports and I crop all the time. There are too many players, officials, spectators and other folk moving around too quickly to guarantee that an otherwise great shot won’t have some stray leg entering in a corner or such. Most of the time I have a good read on who’s going where and I can shoot accordingly, but there are limits to my predictions and I don’t have time to change vantage point. My time is better spent surveying the action as a whole and working on adjusting focal length and maintaining focus. I don’t get two chances at a play, so I want every tool possible to make the shots I do get as good as they can be.

The simple fact is that photographers don’t always have the time, vantage point or equipment to get the desired composition. It’s better to have those things, but it’s certainly worth looking into tools that can help out when you don’t.

While I agree that composition is generally better than cropping, there’s nothing wrong with doing it. It’ll teach you how to compose better.

Often, you only have a moment to get the shot, so while you’ll try to crop it, afterwards, there’ll always be a “wish I’d composed like this instead” and cropping can help with that.

The more you crop now, the less you’ll need to do it in the future as you’ll be teaching yourself the art of composition by simply trying it. Learning how to comp by feel, instead of having to think through the whole process is a talent that can be learned by anyone.

Cheers,

Mike

i

Consider this when making images:

Look.
Think.
See.
Shoot.

PREtouch, don’t REtouch. That is my mantra.

Craft images. Don’t take snapshots. Expand your photographic creativity and vision. Force yourself to create in the environment of your viewfinder. Let that ne your “world.”

Bilka

—-

Peter Serko Says:
February 13th, 2008 at 3:37 am
Nice piece. I should add that one danger here is mistaking cropping for good composition in the first place. I use to crop a lot of my photos until I realized that if I was more thoughtful and careful in my composition I would not need to crop as often to get the results I wanted. Away.. better to first compose in the camera than to do it later.