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To crop or not to crop, that is the question.


10 years 5 months ago #350345 by Angela-M
Should a 'real' photographer have to crop a photo for the right image? What say you? Is this an acceptable process? Actually, how much editing of an original is ok? Feedback highly desirable! :)
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10 years 5 months ago #350355 by Hassner
It depends on the subject.

Lately I do mostly landscapes. I hardly ever crop. Only when I want to change the format to square or more panoramic, which is less than 1% of the time. I use my viewfinder to crop.

With sport and other action photography there is no time for a perfect crop. If I remember that far back, (film days), I cropped 90% of the shots.
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The following user(s) said Thank You: Angela-M
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10 years 5 months ago #350383 by Tuscan Muse
If cropping improves the story behind the image, why not?
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The following user(s) said Thank You: Angela-M
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10 years 5 months ago #350441 by KCook
I always frame slightly wide, to give myself a little wiggle room for fine adjusting the fame later, in post.  Thus I end up cropping ALL of my shots, including landscapes.  Linky -

www.photographytalk.com/forum/photograph...you-hear-this-before

Kelly Cook
Canon 50D, Olympus PL2
kellycook.zenfolio.com/
The following user(s) said Thank You: Angela-M
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10 years 5 months ago #350467 by Angela-M
Most of my photos are action photography - my main subject is the horse and they are always moving and they also are usually farther away then my "current" lenses can zoom so...cropping is pretty much always necessary. The only exception is the close-up shot because my camera will do a continous shoot. This means I can just focus and then take lots of shots and pic the best one.
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10 years 5 months ago #350469 by Angela-M
Excellent feed back considering the source! :)
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10 years 5 months ago #350471 by Angela-M
Thank you Kelly. Good to know. :)
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10 years 5 months ago #350657 by boriqua latina
cropping is alright as long as you make the subject stand out perfectly.. depends on the mood of the subject what you want to express to your viewers..
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10 years 5 months ago #350669 by garyrhook
I'm going to go with, "why is this an issue?"  Who cares what others do?

Do whatever you need to do to create the image you need to create within whatever constraints are imposed upon you. That includes any type of post processing.

I can't imagine not dealing with every single image I create. Cropping is part of that. And it's wise to shoot with margin and tighten up in post, to avoid mistakes that you can't recover from. Yeah, been there, done that. Lots.
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The following user(s) said Thank You: rtenny
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10 years 5 months ago #350723 by hghlndr6
Why would you want to adhere to the camera's aspect ratio?  That would really limit how you can use your image.  ALL of my photos get cropped, various ways.
www.bobmitchellphoto.com
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10 years 5 months ago #350725 by Stealthy Ninja
Cropping is evil. So is any ISO over 100. Also shooting without a tripod isn't something a real photographer would do. Also digital is only for mobile phones. Real photographers shoot large format slide film...

No, it's not an issue.
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www.aevansphoto.com
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10 years 5 months ago #350803 by Angela-M
Thank you for the fantastic feedback! I am learning so much! This is awesome! :)
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10 years 5 months ago #350841 by garyrhook

Angela-M wrote: Thank you for the fantastic feedback! I am learning so much! This is awesome! :)


That's why we're here.  Snarkiness aside, I think that we all want to help each other out.
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10 years 5 months ago #350919 by Shadowfixer1

garyrhook wrote: I'm going to go with, "why is this an issue?"  Who cares what others do?

Do whatever you need to do to create the image you need to create within whatever constraints are imposed upon you. That includes any type of post processing.

I can't imagine not dealing with every single image I create. Cropping is part of that. And it's wise to shoot with margin and tighten up in post, to avoid mistakes that you can't recover from. Yeah, been there, done that. Lots.

Gary is 100% correct. It's your vision. Do what you need to do to produce it.
www.betterphoto.com/?ramshots
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10 years 4 months ago #351437 by photobod
I love Ninjas reply it made me smile, Gary has nailed it, I shoot people (never been caught), I always allow room around the image as clients ask for so many different sizes, so I have to crop for this.
www.dcimages.org.uk
"A good photograph is one that communicate a fact, touches the heart, leaves the viewer a changed person for having seen it. It is, in a word, effective." - Irving Penn
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