Cropping?

Ross_Curtis

Ross_Curtis

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Maybe it's me but I've never been a fan of cropping, should I crop I'll almost never change the proportions.

I guess this comes from my days of shooting on slide film where there is no room for error, cropping or any PP.

What are your views on this.
 
Entirely true, but, I find there is something satifying about getting it right from the start.
 
Ross_Curtis said:
Entirely true, but, I find there is something satifying about getting it right from the start.
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If something would look good with a square crop, or with a panoramic crop, how do you do that in camera? I reckon my collection of images would look pretty boring if they were all 3x2.
 
I do like the idea of square images, I used to love shooting with MF.

Maybe I should explore this......
 
EVERY picture needs to be cropped - some you do in camera - some you have to do in PP!
 
Sorry, never got this `purity in photography` stuff about not cropping, not using Photoshop etc.

There is nothing whatsoever natural about taking a photo. If you really want to get pure about it, you need to use Bitumen of Judea and spend two days over a single image.
 
jonneymendoza said:
Every picture taken by a beginner yes it's true .
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NO. Every picture. Some in camera. Some in pp.
 
jonneymendoza said:
Every picture taken by a beginner yes it's true .
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ok then - I'll just let the Tate/National Gallery/Louvre/etc know that all their pictures should be an identical fixed ratio and size then.... :thinking::thinking::thinking:
 
I cop an awful lot. Mainly because I can't afford a 400+mm lens so it's either crop or shoot lot's of "environmental" shots.

Also I can't shoot a straight horizon to save my life, and straightening it crops it a tiny bit.
 
I think the idea behind the 'every picture has been cropped' is that you decide the 'crop', if it has not been cropped it would be a 360 shot all around you.

Even if you take a step forward you are effectively 'cropping' the image
 
Sorry but in my line of work not cropping and getting it right first in camera is the biggest load of tosh you could come up with.. Some people (like the OP it seems) dont seem to realise what a big wide world it is and how different people have different needs and requirements.. Not everyone photographs in the same way...

i think your coments belong in the blinkered cupboard along with the classic "everyone should practice and use one shot and get it right first time" or the ever posted "everyone should learn manual and only use that"

cropping is there to be used if required.. its a tool.. it isnt a crutch for newbies.


All as per usual just IMHO :)
 
Cropping is just another tool, refusing to use it is like saying, my camera my go up to ISO 3200 but I could only go up to ASA 400 in film, so I'm not going use anything above ISO 400. Dodging, Burning and cropping were always possible with film if you knew what you were doing. Shear stupidity and misguided arrogance not to use all the tools available in my opinion.
 
I used to shoot a lot of slide (still do a bit of it) so I know what you mean, getting it right first time, in camera, is a discipline and a buzz.

But,* I also used to shoot a lot of b/w neg and print it myself. I'd quite happily crop a print on an enlarger.

If it occurred to me later that a different crop would work better than the original framing, I'd do it. Sometimes I'd shoot the original intending a square crop, not having my Lubitel 166 at hand. Sometimes it was adjusting perspective by tilting the base board during a print exposure.

I'll do the same in Adobe Lightroom today with no qualms.


* this is deliberately using a 'but' to begin a paragraph to illustrate the breaking of rules. :)
 
KIPAX said:
Sorry but in my line of work not cropping and getting it right first in camera is the biggest load of tosh you could come up with.. Some people (like the OP it seems) dont seem to realise what a big wide world it is and how different people have different needs and requirements.. Not everyone photographs in the same way...

i think your coments belong in the blinkered cupboard along with the classic "everyone should practice and use one shot and get it right first time" or the ever posted "everyone should learn manual and only use that"

cropping is there to be used if required.. its a tool.. it isnt a crutch for newbies.


All as per usual just IMHO :)
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:agree:

Do what you have to in order to obtain the image you /customer wanted.
If that means cropping so be it.
I am sure all the shots you see of Mr Rooney & co filling the frame are not because the tog is superb at tracking him across the pitch in frame.
 
flossie said:
ok then - I'll just let the Tate/National Gallery/Louvre/etc know that all their pictures should be an identical fixed ratio and size then.... :thinking::thinking::thinking:
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what i mean is that not EVERY picture needs cropping:bonk:

i crop some of mine but others come out fine especially landscape pics where you have all the time in the world to frame it.
 
jon ryan said:
Sorry, never got this `purity in photography` stuff about not cropping, not using Photoshop etc.

There is nothing whatsoever natural about taking a photo. If you really want to get pure about it, you need to use Bitumen of Judea and spend two days over a single image.
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I agree. What ever a shot needs to look how you want it is what you do. If that is PP croipping or cropping in frame who cares.
 
You crop with your eye before you take the shot. You crop with the enlarger to get a sharp egde and you crop with a photo when putting it in a frame. you even get a crop in the viewfinder.

You photos are cropped :)

Tom
 
uhh? sorry but i mean cropping using photoshop, lightroom etc. you dont NEED to crop EVERY SINGLE pic u take .

thats what i mean
 
Ah I see ... sorry Im old and glasses not working yet hahahaha

If cropping makes you unhappy .... dont do it. I crop because Im so bad a getting it right :)

The beauty is that we are both right ....... and no will will ever know how bad I am at it hehehe

Tom
 
I crop the hell out of almost every shot but I do feel a little frisson of smug satisfaction when the original image doesn't need cropping. I'm also happy when the cropped image has the original proportions (3:2) or square or 4:3. I come over a bit queasy when the crop just has to be something else. Just another bit of OCD.
 
I like it when I framed a picture just right, but unfortunately not every situation (for a myriad of reasons) lends itself to getting it absolutely right in the frame unless you perhaps don't leave a studio.

Some crops can 100% transform a picture for the better. Whatever suits the situation though.
 
I think if you are in control of absolutely everything - lighting, your position, background, subject position environment etc then you probably wouldn' t need to crop - example white bg studio shoot.

But I think to us who actually go outside and take photos of real thinks in real environments cropping is absolutely fine. I just don't get this purist film photographer thing. Years ago we didn't have stabilised lenses, yet I don't see that many people complaining about it.
 
The only problem I have with cropping, is I can never decide where is the best crop. And when I eventually decide, I am rarely happy with it.

That's why I don't crop mine.
 
I usually try to frame the picture as best as I can when taking the photograph however some pictures you just need to crop. I tend to photograph a lot of motorsport and with the subject moving so quickly, there is no time to take the 'perfect' picture straight from the camera. Little objects may get in the way at the edges of the image and/or colours from the armco or signs may distract from the actual image subject (car/bike/whatever).

I always need to adjust the image - whether it be cropping to bring the horizon straight or cropping until I feel I have the desired picture I want. Its a powerful tool that you should not be afraid to use!
 
It's a tool, so if it's needed it gets used.

I think the world would be a much duller place if every picture was in it's original proportions.
 
BarryG said:
The only problem I have with cropping, is I can never decide where is the best crop. And when I eventually decide, I am rarely happy with it.

That's why I don't crop mine.
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I always, ALWAYS save a copy of every shot as it comes out of the camera. The first part of my workflow is dumping the card onto the hard drive and saving everything. Any that turn out to be worthless are dumped later, but all keepers are saved as original files regardless of what editing may be done to copies.

That way, you can always call up the original, duplicate it, and re-crop as many times as you wish. Some shots may have more than one image taken from the original for different purposes; say a full landscape and a detail shot of that nice castle on the horizon. These will likely need different treatments in post, so going back to the original for the second image may well give a better result.

Cropping well is an aspect of photography that needs to be learned and practised like any other - and is just as important as the rest when it comes to obtaining a good result.
 
That's where tools like Apple Aperture are so good, you can create unlimited versions that take up no extra space and always go back to the original if you so want.
 
With Landscapes I like to try and 'frame' the image on location but if I later decide that there's an image within the image then I'll crop it if improves the result.

For wildlife shots when time isn't a luxury I tend to use centre point focus on the eye / head so more or often than not the animal or bird ends up centre frame so cropping allows me to improve the end composition.
 
dejongj said:
That's where tools like Apple Aperture are so good, you can create unlimited versions that take up no extra space and always go back to the original if you so want.
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I think all manipulation programmes have a `duplicate` button.
 
I prefer to get the crop right in camera, less work for proofing etc. But I often shoot with an 8x10 ratio in mind and leave a bit on the sides by knowing where that is in the viewfinder. But I have no problem cropping and image if I see it will improve it in post.
 
jon ryan said:
I think all manipulation programmes have a `duplicate` button.
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He's not talking about a duplicate - but an 'virtual' copy. Just another entry in the database taking up very little space indeed.
 
jon ryan said:
I think all manipulation programmes have a `duplicate` button.
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The difference between many programs and Aperture (and Lightroom, and other raw processing programs) is the middle part of dejongj's statement - "unlimited versions that take up no extra space".

Creating a duplicate image, just because you want a different crop, or a slightly different edit, is extremely wasteful of space. Being able to create virtual duplicates, where the only extra data stored is the processing 'recipe', is far more efficient.
 
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Besides, if you're selling an image to a magazine or whatever, they're quite likely to crop it however they need to :)
 
That's it indeed, awp/hollis_f are absolutely right in my explanation. All that gets stored is a description of the edit rather than the edit itself. Very useful for different 'projects' like an online album, or granny's 6x4 snaps, or optimised for HD TV etc, or a b/w series. At virtually no additional cost of space.
 
Fair enough - sounds useful. I've never used Aperture, but space these days isn't exactly expensive, so I wouldn't not back up on those grounds
 
jon ryan said:
Fair enough - sounds useful. I've never used Aperture, but space these days isn't exactly expensive, so I wouldn't not back up on those grounds
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Jon, it has nothing to do with backups :thumbs: I make lots of backups, time machine does it hourly and daily to two raid arrays. Then weekly a set goes off-site and gets recycled. And then, if I remember, I do a fault update at the end of the day to my network drives as well.
 
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