Cropping Advice

[Robert Holguin]

Hello everyone. I have always had a hard time trying to figure how to crop images. What do I have to take into consideration when cropping? What do I need to look for? Any advice greatly apperciated. Thanks

Robert

[Jim Neiger]

Hi Robert,

There are several things to consider. Here are a few:

1. End use. What is the minimum image size that will meet my requirements for the intended end use of the image. You can crop a lot more for small web display images than for large printed images.

2. Composition - Cropping is often needed to create the best composition for the image, particularly for action images.

3. Dimension - Sometimes the end use requires a dimension that requires cropping to achieve.

4. Removal of distracting elements - Sometimes you can eliminte distracting elements of an image by cropping while still achieving a good composition.

I'm sure there are other considerations, but they don't come to mind right now. I hope this helps.

[Marina Scarr]

This tutorial by James Shadle could be helpful to you in choosing your composition. http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php/52894-Rules-of-Thirds-Compositional-Examples. You can find the tutorial under Educational Resources.

If you have CS5, when you crop an image, your grid should already be in thirds which is very helpful when deciding on a composition. It also helps a lot to look at other pictures, read the other critiques, and write your own critiques. The more you do this, the faster you will learn.

Hope this helps.