thoughts on cropping

stewsmith

stewsmith

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stewart
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I have only just started to take topside photos. I have been shooting DSLR for a couple of years underwater though. In the circles of underwater photography it is alomost frowned upon if you crop images. what are the general feelings regarding cropping for general use and for comps.

Stew
 
Crop as required. Who is to say 3:2 is the perfect format for your vision, or 4:3 or 16:9 or any other pre-defined limitation forced on you by your camera? If you can't get close enough to your subject and your glass is too short then what are you going to do - not bother with the photo because you "must not crop"?
 
Absolutely agree with tdodd. There is sometimes a much stronger composition to be had and I won't ignore that just because my dslr shoots 3:2.
 
Yep, crop away for me :) how can 'cropping' be frowned upon?
 
Cropping is the best friend of the compositionally challenged.

I :love: the crop tool :bonk::bonk::bonk:
 
Some crops look nicer than others, I see strange looking crops all the time, and occasionally it wasn't worth doing, what impact you gained compositionally, you can lose with a oddly shaped picture.....:)
 
If you can't crop then best not use one of those filthy, dirty "crop body" cameras either. As for compacts - burn them! Burn them all. Only the purity of full frame shall remain, whatever "full frame" means. But don't let the "large format" police discover you using one of those itty bitty "full frame" cameras, lest they forbid you to use them as well.
 
on a more serious note, I can see why for 'underwater photography' cropping would be frowned upon (e.g. if you need to crop, then you've not made enough effort to get close to your subject and/or compose, etc.).

but i've never felt this sort of compulsion for general photography - so crop as you see fit :)
 
Never really thought about it too much.

Sometimes a nudge in the right direction is all that is need, if any.

Sometimes I crop in anger :p
 
The time I have spent cropping really has helped with my composition!
 
Crop away and enjoy it ... :D
 
I crop most photos a bit... even deliberately shot a little wide sometimes on landscapes to allow for rotation later, because what seems like a straight horizon when I shoot is not always the case in the finished article.
*** Note to self: Drink less whisky when on a landscape shoot ***
 
i allways crop unless your a genius and get everypicture correct.

i regard it as lazy to not crop to improve a photo.
 
ditchdigger said:
i allways crop unless your a genius and get everypicture correct.

i regard it as lazy to not crop to improve a photo.
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Ansel Adams was lazy then? :D
His view was that if you had to crop then maybe you were not paying attention out there behind the camera.

If you have time to move around and use the zoom range there is sometimes no need but like most people I use all the tools I can to improve my pictures, including cropping.
 
Mike Hoyer said:
Don't think AA shot a lot of racing....
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or birds in flight, for which use of the centre focus point is essential for some camera bodies, which might makes things a bit tricky when wishing to compose artistically, unless you crop.
 
Suvv said:
Ansel Adams was lazy then? :D
His view was that if you had to crop then maybe you were not paying attention out there behind the camera.

If you have time to move around and use the zoom range there is sometimes no need but like most people I use all the tools I can to improve my pictures, including cropping.
Click to expand...

no he was a genius
but as a lot of the time he was useing a plate camera on a non moving subject and waiting for the light to turn
so he had days at times to compose

ime john and i crop pictures :eek:
 
Suvv said:
Ansel Adams was lazy then? :D
His view was that if you had to crop then maybe you were not paying attention out there behind the camera.
Click to expand...
What Adams said and what he actually did were two different things. ;) He invented his incredibly difficult zone metering system in an effort to attain perfect exposure. The system relied on correctly identifying any single tone in the scene as it would appear in a monochrome image, and if that was achieved, every other tone in the image would automatically be correctly exposed for. Despite all the efforts he put into getting that riight, he spent many many hours, even days, in the darkrooim, dodging burning and manipulating prints to get the perfect result. He was a master of darkroom technique, and if he was around today he'd be a master of Photoshop.
 
CT said:
What Adams said and what he actually did were two different things. ;) He invented his incredibly difficult zone metering system in an effort to attain perfect exposure. The system relied on correctly identifying any single tone in the scene as it would appear in a monochrome image, and if that was achieved, every other tone in the image would automatically be correctly exposed for. Despite all the efforts he put into getting that riight, he spent many many hours, even days, in the darkrooim, dodging burning and manipulating prints to get the perfect result. He was a master of darkroom technique, and if he was around today he'd be a master of Photoshop.
Click to expand...

But would he crop? :D
 
Suvv said:
Ansel Adams was lazy then? :D
His view was that if you had to crop then maybe you were not paying attention out there behind the camera.

If you have time to move around and use the zoom range there is sometimes no need but like most people I use all the tools I can to improve my pictures, including cropping.
Click to expand...

Did he drink whisky?
 
CT said:
What Adams said and what he actually did were two different things. ;)
Click to expand...

and to go off on a complete tangent here, despite his strongly held views on protection of the environment, and his great success in persuading the US government to create National Parks in the Sierra Nevada, he also did freelance work for quarrying companies that were destroying the very same.

(if I remember correctly from reading his biography........)
 
I try to avoid cropping as it can play havoc when coming to print later (as if 6x4 and 7x5 weren't hard enough!) I'll either keep to the original sensor size and get it right in camera, or deliberately shoot to crop to 1:1 or a wide pano.
 
chrisgeary said:
I try to avoid cropping as it can play havoc when coming to print later (as if 6x4 and 7x5 weren't hard enough!) I'll either keep to the original sensor size and get it right in camera, or deliberately shoot to crop to 1:1 or a wide pano.
Click to expand...

Surely the constraints of "standard" print paper sizes is exactly one reason that you "have" to crop. How else do you fit the output from a DSLR or compact onto 7x5 or 8x10 paper, for example?

6x4 is perfect for DSLRs, but no bloody use for compacts. I'm not sure that 7x5 is actually suited to anything at all, unless you crop first. Now, 7.5x5 I could quite understand. Fortunately for me I never print, so all I have to do is crop to make the best image I can for viewing on a 16x9 HDTV display.
 
underwater, in the sunny lovely waters around the british isles I would think that it's hard to take a picture that isn't close to the subject...

where abouts are your pictures taken?
 
My camera cant shoot to a 1:1 or 2:1 ratio so i've no option other than to crop :p
 
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