Bad cropping examples

When you move away from taking just snapshops to actually trying to produce quality photographs that you'd be proud to frame, you're moving into the realms of artists. And just any art, tastes are all subjective. What may work for you in a photo might not for others. Or vice versa.

These are a few old photographs I took awhile ago. I decided to be heavy-handed in cropping them, to give a few example of what's too much.

Original. The composition isn't bad. It's not quite divided up in thirds, but that couldn't be helped, considering the enormity of the subject in the photo. In this photo, the ground accounts for one third, and ideally the monument would the other third and the "empty space" - sky, in this case, would be the last third. But architects did not take photography into consideration when designing this monument.

Cropped. Now, it's more evenly divided into thirds. But cropping it didn't improve the picture, although it did help emphasize just how talllll this monument is. I prefer the original over this.

Original. Same subject, but a bit further away.
This is another example of too-severe cropping, which resulted in loss of interest in the photo. If I cropped it so there were still a bit of the trees along the sides, that would be more interesting - the trees also serve to help guide your eyes toward the center, where I want the focus to be.

Another monument...It's a not bad-shot, but because this photo is nearly monochromatic - sometimes a good thing, sometimes not - I found that my eyes kept skipping all over the place, even despite knowing it's empty space.
Cropped it severely. The monument now dominates the space, which is fitting because, well, it's a damn big monument. But sometimes having a bit empty space to serve as a sort of neutral buffer for the eyes is good. I think a cropping job that's a smidge less severe than this (below) would be better.

What do ya'all think? Agree? Disagree? Speak up!

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How to take effective photographs - Cropping

It's one thing to read or be told how to photograph well, but it's quite another to actually see samples of why this or that does or doesn't work along with explanations.

One of the secret to stellar photographs isn't just in photography itself alone, but also in knowing when and how to to use post-production tools. Post-production is a fancy schmancy term that means anything you might do after "production" - taking photos. Cropping, dodging, burning, all the classic tools plus a few new ones thanks to the advent of computer digital technology that most of us now have access to.

Take this first photograph for example. It's a pretty good picture. It breaks the "rule of thirds" a little, but that's okay - rules are made to be broken. But how do we make it better? The little details that makes the kid so cute are actually drawing the viewer's attention away. Like the ear, chubby neck and the shirt. The black background isn't too bad, but if we trimmed it down, it would move one's focus squarely where it belong - on this chubbo's face.

Right now, he seems a bit far away and somehow frail. I don't want to convey this...this kid was anything but frail. If anything, he was pretty much in my face, demanding that I give him "the cam'a!" or to open a bag of goldfish so that he could stuff his face. Quite a character.

I cropped this photo along the left and right sides, taking out the ear, minimizing the shirt and the black. I decided to make the photo as perfectly square as I could. Now, because of how this photo was cropped, it more closely follows the rule of the thirds. His eyes pop out more; they effectively command your attention.
I did consider cropping more and making it a vertical picture. But I decided against it - I felt his cheeks were a distinctive feature and to remove them would hurt the photo. Whenever you crop, do it in moderation, little at a time (or be very familiar with the undo tool) and always always save your cropped copy under a different filename, just in case you decide you don't like it later down the road.

Rule of thirds example. Behold my computer drawing skills.
The original photo wasn't strong and distinctive, but cropping improved it. This is why close-ups of people's faces are employed so often in various media. The eyes are a very dramatic and effective way to grab people's attention - windows to a person's soul.

So, to wrap this up...
1. When cropping (or using other tools), keep the feel/mood of the photo in mind
2. Pay attention to the shapes of your subject and consider cropping parallel to the shape. Ie, if your subject is tall and lean, make the photo a vertical one to emphasize that.
3. While cropping, keep the the rule of thirds in mind - but don't follow it strictly.

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