Oh Crop!

Question for you, have you ever seen a picture that is pretty but something is terribly wrong and you just can't put your finger on it? Then all of a sudden it hits you smack in the middle of the forehead... the girl in the picture is missing her chin, or maybe both of her feet. Why does this couple not have any limbs, or appear not to when they really do? The answer to this question is a bad crop job! The way you crop a photograph, whether it is in camera (what I highly suggest doing) or in Photoshop can either win the photograph a prize or seal the fate of moving to the trashcan icon on your desktop.

My personal opinions on cropping

1-Cropping in camera can help you tell the story- never just shoot to shoot with out any idea of the end result in mind.

2- Be aware of limbs. It can be hard sometimes when you are in the moment and worrying about lighting,  camera settings and everything else that goes into play when you are shooting that it is easy to cut off a hand or foot. Take your time, slow down and breath. Look at what you see through your lens before firing away.

3- When it comes to cropping in nice and tight on the face never crop off the chin. Just don't. Don't ask why just don't. :) Crop the forehead over the chin. It is more natural because we wear hats that hide that part of our head. Nothing is usually hiding the chin.

4- Use the rule of thirds when cropping IN and OUT of Camera.  Don't crop images to the dead center. It usually hold no story line.

Below are some pictures of mine that I cropped in photoshop so you could see a little of what I am talking about.

In this first group of photos I show you how to crop when you go in tight on the head. Crop the forehead, not the chin!

Here I cropped In Camera...in the first photo they are entering the scene and have somewhere to go. In the second photo they are exiting the scene. Just these different crops can change the story of your picture.

 In the last set here I showed how you should not cut off feet. Always leave your subjects their limbs. They will thank you and come back to book you again!

I hope you learned today the importance of cropping an image properly. But please do remember that for every rule given to you, that same rule can be broken. Just break it wisely, and in a beautiful manner. ;)

One woman that has cropping down to an art is my good friend Erin Summerill. Go check out her blog and what she is putting out in the world wide web.