can one crop too much ?

realspeed

realspeed

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Bazza
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No
overdone it here I think

slnVDNy.jpg


from original

GIn0nj4.jpg

Now
 
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Yes, and yes. I know from experience :)

Theres just not enough detail in the butterfly to get way with such a huge crop.
 
The actual focus is on the top rear of the wing if it had been on the butterflies eye you could easily have pushed that crop ,even more so if you had used topaz de.noise Ai
 
Are you making a postage stamp? Or something to be printed very large and viewed from a great distance? If so then I think such a crop would work, although it is a bit too centred for my preference. At that size the focus being in the wing is also emphasized, but I think that is a more interesting subject than a butterfly's eye.

But at the size it appears on my monitor from a close-up viewing distance it lacks the resolution.

Although even then, it depends on the effect you are aiming for. With some artistic effects to play with the contrast and saturation there are contexts in which it could still work as an image.

So my answer is maybe, maybe not. It depends on what you are trying to create and who your audience will be.
 
First of all can I thank you all for the replies. There is a good reason why I asked. If you missed my other posts I was on the point of throwing the camera out, the focus was terrible. No matter what I did it never improved. Changed lenses- swapped with another camera no problem, it drove me mad honest, and frustrated.
found the answer with Steve Perry's youtube post, it was down the the AF sensors, never crossed my mind.

So now the reason for posting the photo. Having "cleaned" the AF sensor with old round sponge swabs it improved the focus somewhat but yesterday I got new ones so "clean" the AF sensors again and now able to post the above. OK not dead on sharp as the plant was waving in the wind but this time use a longer lens as well, (a Nikon 24-70 f2.8 G.)
So the above is really a test to see if I am capable of doing better. so I was quite pleased with this hand held shot, ok more practise now i know what the problem was.

So thanks all again for your suggestions and replies much appreciated
 
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I don't think you've cropped too much, actually, but it depends on te level of the photographer judging. As a beginner, I'd call these shots very nice
 
Catherine Bowlene said:
I don't think you've cropped too much, actually, but it depends on te level of the photographer judging. As a beginner, I'd call these shots very nice
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Really?? The 1st image has missed the focus by a country mile :LOL: :LOL: :LOL: :LOL: sorry @realspeed
 
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Catherine Bowlene said:
Thanks for sharing! I just a had a brief look at your works but they are so nice! Especially the ones with the birds on the water
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Thank you - I do a lot of wildlife and most images require a crop- having full frame camera bodies (x2)

Les :)
 
I frequently crop to 1/10th of a 20MP frame if it suits me. Some people will find this acceptable and others won't...

Spitfire at Sidmouth Air Show P1012789.JPG

Mustang at Weston Super Mare Air Show P1010680.JPG
 
Depends what you start with, here is a 6000x4000 pixel crop, because that's typical for DSLRs, and the original.

received_10155622315578666.jpegreceived_10155622312738666.jpeg
 
Can you crop too much?

The simple answer must be yes you can crop too much, if the crop then doesn't match your size, resolution or other requirements.
 
I routinely cropped quite heavily on my airshow photos. I use a 400mm equivalen lens on a 12mp camera. It is decent enough for FB and small prints. I still get enjoyment from looking at the photos but I don’t think I would win awards for them. My point is crop according to what you find personally acceptable unless it’s for commercial work which will have minimum quality standards.
 
I think if you need to crop to such extreme lengths as this I would suggest either using different lenses or composing differently. Certainly in landscapes I change the aspect ratio (commonly 3:2 to 2:1 or 4:3 etc) but try (other than to remove soft edges) crop as little as I can to preserve the resolution and detail.
 
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SFTPhotography said:
I think if you need to crop to such extreme lengths as this I would suggest either using different lenses or composing differently. Certainly in landscapes I change the aspect ratio but try (other than to remove soft edges) crop as little as I can to preserve the resolution and detail.
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That's fine in theory but sometimes you just can't. Sometimes you just have to either take the picture with what you have from where you are or not take the picture at all.
 
I think there are two reasons for large crops.

1. You didn't have the right lens or viewpoint in the first place.
2. You saw a picture within the original image at the processing stage, which could be extracted with a judicious crop.
 
Brian G said:
1. You didn't have the right lens or viewpoint in the first place.
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I would rephrase that as: "you saw a picture that had to be taken from where you were, when you were there". Happens to me all the time.
Brian G said:
2. You saw a picture within the original image at the processing stage, which could be extracted with a judicious crop.
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That also happens to me frequently.
 
Cropping is like any other post-processing tool- use it if you need to, but if you look at the end image and can tell it's been done, then it's probably too much.
 
When I hover over the link to this thread, a little box appears which only includes the top third of the cropped image before fading away. The resolution of the crop at that resolution is fine, and the focus on the wing makes the detail on it really stand out. So now I think it has not been cropped enough!
 
Of course you can, I mean if you crop right down to a mere few pixels that's way too much, but these days with modern sensors I think we can get away with some pretty heavy crops. Macro and wildlife shooters are forever at it, often cropping down over 50% and maintaining enough res to share on social media.
 
Interesting view points thank you. As mentioned you have to work with the lens on the camera at the time. If ones doesn't at least try, etc etc.Something I shall have to work on
 
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Yes but depends on many factors, there is a certain point where it looks like the photo is of low quality. personal thing maybe
 
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