Non Standard sizes - unconstrained cropping

BillN_33

BillN_33

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Bill
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Just a generally discussion point

What do you guys think about unconstrained cropping - i.e. producing images which are not the usual standard sizes

Personally, just my preferences, I do not really like them, I feel that with one or two exceptions they look "uncomfortable" when viewed

Just a light hearted topic - nothing heavy please
 
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it kinda depends what they are for.. all my pics are cropped 7x5/a4/a3 and so on.. something I ahve done for yrs ... its good for my business selling prints... I too find most odd shaped strange now..

however i believe unconstrained croppping works if you know what you are doing.. its has to be the right picture and the right crop and it will work... I see so many people with strange crops that don't work ..
 
I can see why professionals would want to stick with the established paper sizes for mounting/framing reasons if nothing else, but I often look at my shots and think a letterbox format would work well, or (increasingly often for some reason) I like a square crop.

Rob
 
Always stick to the same size standard image sizes my cameras take, when cropping on photoshop I always set the cropping to same as image ratio both for landscape and portrait images, use that both for Wildlife & Landscapes. For sport Photography I always use 30x20 crops...
 
I usually try one of the common crops and then go unconstrained if I can't get what I need. 35mm film is a bit long and narrow in portrait, I find...
 
Surely the image constrains the crop.whilst some will naturally fit a conventional format, if photographed for that, are you not limiting your vision by sticking to the run of the mill formats. panoramas for instance wont fit a standard crop . Now you may be limited for the frame if you use standard "off the shelf " sizes but it's not t difficult to get a custom mat cut to fit both the image and frame
 
I agree. I always crop to suit the picture. Not only do I never use pre-set ratios, unless you have a specific reason, like printing, I think artificially constraining the crop ratio, is limiting your creative freedom for no good reason. Sticking to some fixed ratio the camera offers seems crazy to me. Don't follow some arbitrary limitation. Free yourself to use the virtually unlimited possibilities we have.
 
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@RaglanSurf in the Film & Conventional sub-forum pointed us some time ago to this image in the Magnum Contact Sheet book, contact strips by Elliot Erwin. The pic in the top row is apparently very famous, and is a 35mm (or smaller) crop from a 6*6 frame. Seeing that made me think, crop what the heck you feel right!
 
Most of my larger prints are done on A series paper which is 1.41421 (or thereabouts!) : 1 rather than the more standard 3 : 2 (or 1.5 : 1) ratio. I tend to shoot slightly (lazily) loose to allow for the slight cropping I need to do to fit DSLR ratio shots onto the paper I use.
 
Unconstrained cropping to suit the subject every time. If the photo has to be framed blank space is preferable to a bad crop to fit the frame..
 
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