How tightly do you frame your shots & and do you crop?

[J.R.]

I try to use anything that makes my images look better, whether it is cropping, using layers, LR adjustments ... you name it ... that's in my opinion, is the whole point of going digital.

I don't care whether anyone thinks PP or cropping is bad or that I am breaking some rule which was made in the days of film.

 

[sanj]

I try to use anything that makes my images look better, whether it is cropping, using layers, LR adjustments ... you name it ... that's in my opinion, is the whole point of going digital.

I don't care whether anyone thinks PP or cropping is bad or that I am breaking some rule which was made in the days of film.

Me same

 

[ajfotofilmagem]

When I had Rebel XT (8 megapixel), avoiding crop more than 10% in order to print A4 size with good quality. Today, with 18 megapixel, feel comfortable to crop more, throwing out 50% of the resolution. But I only photograph at full resolution, and crop after making all adjustments in post production.

 

[Kwanon]

I crop as little as possible.
I am more creative this way as i have to think about the shot more and i see the final product right there.

 

[chauncey]

I do crop...after I've taken series of overlapping images and photo-merged them in Photoshop.

 

[Eldar]

I am waiting for the next megapixle body, to get maximum resolution. Where´s the logic in throwing it all away in cropping? So, despite all good arguments for birds, sports and wildlife (where I also crop a lot), I stand firm; you should think your composition through before you press the shutter release.

I am now half way through an excellent Provence rosé. Recommendable! Have a great weekend

 

[TexPhoto]

Cropping is like shooting in jpeg. If your photos were good nobody would care.

Here's the thing, 1. Get it right in camera 2. Get it better in post. 3. It's the photo that matters, not your T-shirt.

Anyway I'll be starting an I don't crop line of T-shirts and accessories.

 

[Zv]

I am waiting for the next megapixle body, to get maximum resolution. Where´s the logic in throwing it all away in cropping? So, despite all good arguments for birds, sports and wildlife (where I also crop a lot), I stand firm; you should think your composition through before you press the shutter release.

I am now half way through an excellent Provence rosé. Recommendable! Have a great weekend

Max resolution would only really come into play when printing. For those of us who only publish to the web even 3MP image is enough. Most screens can't display the extra res. Why not crop a little? Give yourself a little working space to rotate and remove distractions or even get creative with aspect ratios? You can't do 16:9 in camera.

 

[Chuck Alaimo]

what i don't get about this is this ----how does this so called pro not crop, ever? Ok, lets talk not only about the framing you desire, but, what any potential client may want. If i shoot something wide, I want it wide, and i get this a lot ---clients who want prints but in 8x10, 11x14, or 16x20 - I always advise that 8x12, 12x18, or 16x24 is the native size of the image, it was how it was composed and it won't look right. More times than not this message is ignored because they are buying frames from the average box store and what do they have mostly in stock? 8x10 format.

I had one client that I shot their engagement shoot, they wanted prints, I told them about the crop factor, showed them crops vs natural size...they wanted the crops (they liked the 8x12 better, but already had 8x10 frames). then i shot their wedding and what do they include in the order - 8x10's. One was on a group shot. It was framed tight (not like arms falling off tight, like 1/3 of an inch from the border. But, if you lop an inch of each side, there goes the people on the right and the left too. she wisely revised and got the 8x12 of that one.

So, what's right an d whats wrong? In that photog's eye's I should just not satisfy customers because cropping isn't 'pro?' uggg....

 

[Zv]

what i don't get about this is this ----how does this so called pro not crop, ever? Ok, lets talk not only about the framing you desire, but, what any potential client may want. If i shoot something wide, I want it wide, and i get this a lot ---clients who want prints but in 8x10, 11x14, or 16x20 - I always advise that 8x12, 12x18, or 16x24 is the native size of the image, it was how it was composed and it won't look right. More times than not this message is ignored because they are buying frames from the average box store and what do they have mostly in stock? 8x10 format.

I had one client that I shot their engagement shoot, they wanted prints, I told them about the crop factor, showed them crops vs natural size...they wanted the crops (they liked the 8x12 better, but already had 8x10 frames). then i shot their wedding and what do they include in the order - 8x10's. One was on a group shot. It was framed tight (not like arms falling off tight, like 1/3 of an inch from the border. But, if you lop an inch of each side, there goes the people on the right and the left too. she wisely revised and got the 8x12 of that one.

So, what's right an d whats wrong? In that photog's eye's I should just not satisfy customers because cropping isn't 'pro?' uggg....

Exactly. Clients rarely have a clue what they want. I shot a group portrait the other day and I showed them a few different crops. They liked the tightly cropped one. All done with just one image. In camara it would have meant switching lens back and forth. When you're on a tight sched that aint an option. Cropping a 21MP in post is.

 

[Rienzphotoz]

The first time I ever travelled from London Euston to Glasgow Central was in a Virgin Pendolino train in 2010, and it was a very beautiful and scenic route (at least for me) ... I wanted to capture the beauty of the landscape I was looking at through the train window, while the train was speeding at around 125 MPH, but there were trees, electric poles, wires, shrubs etc getting in the way of taking a nice photo, the way I saw the beautiful landscape, so I had very little time between 2 trees or poles to make an image ... so I tried to capture images with my Canon 7D + EF 24-105 f/4 L IS lens and whatever little skill I had ... but when I downloaded the images on to my computer they were disappointing, they did not look anywhere close to what I remembered the landscape to be ... so I cropped and edited the image (as you can see below). If any of the (so called) "professional/purist" photographers tells me that I "should not crop" an image, I'll tell'm to go 5crew themselves ... I will crop my images the way I think are pleasing to me. I know the images I posted here are not great in comparison to any of you talented folk can make but I think these images give an idea of what can be done with an ordinary/bad image if it is cropped and edited. The most awesome part of it is that I don't have to do this for every single image separately, I just select all my images and click Sync and lightroom applies all my changes to all of them ... how convenient is that ... one has to be absolutely stupid (or a genius of epic talent) not to use the awesome power PP gives us, if they are throwing away images because they don't want to crop. Peace.

 

[takesome1]

You can crop your pictures till they are pixelated, PP till your pictures look like they were colored with crayons. It doesn't mean you have great photography skills.

Photography and editing skills are not the same. For a great picture get it right at the camera first, the less you have to correct in PP the less it will look fake.

 

[Rienzphotoz]

You can crop your pictures till they are pixelated, PP till your pictures look like they were colored with crayons. It doesn't mean you have great photography skills.

Photography and editing skills are not the same. For a great picture get it right at the camera first, the less you have to correct in PP the less it will look fake.

Don't need to have "great" photography skills, just need to know the difference between stupidity (e.g "crop pictures till they are pixelated") and common sense (e.g knowing when to crop). Photography and editing skills require the same basic principals of seeing light, checking composition and much of what goes on with photography.

 

[Botts]

For a great picture get it right at the camera first, the less you have to correct in PP the less it will look fake.

This works great if you know your destination, sometimes you don't though. If I'm shooting images for a fun photo book, I don't know if my photo will be cropped to 4:3, 4:5, 16:9 or some other aspect ratio.

Framing for a perfect 4:3 composition would really limit which photos I could use where.

Similarly, if I'm shooting an event, I'll usually make a slideshow 16:9 if it's full images, or any aspect ratio if it's more like a collage. Also, I'll probably wind up printing some of the images as large 4:3s. I like having some space to work with.