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| Gathering Storm. Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge, Virginia (click to enlarge) |
There seems to always have been two schools of thought about cropping photographs. One, the 'never crop' school of thought, proffers that with careful composition, one never needs to nor should crop their final photographs. The other school of thought is that cropping is fine and that one should crop according to the specific scene and subject. Which is right?
I'm not here to say either is correct as everyone has the right to photograph and edit their images in any fashion he or she may choose. I've always been one who follows the second school. I will get my composition as precise as possible in-camera, but I will not hesitate to crop my images according to my subject. I'll look at an image file and then determine if it is the best I think it can be, as is, or if it can be strengthened by cropping. If the photograph can be strengthened by eliminating extraneous and non-important 'stuff,' then it's gone. Tout de suite! I have no hesitation in doing so.
Not only will I crop an image, but I may change its entire shape if I feel doing so will make it better. I may change a native 4:3 or 3:2 ratio image to square, 4:5 or even 16:9. As I said, if in my opinion the photograph can be strengthened by cropping or changing its shape, then I do it.
Frankly I don't quite understand the 'never crop under any circumstances' school of thought. They must be much better photographers than am I. Sometimes I see a final image in my mind's eye but I may not have a lens long enough to compose it as I would want the final image to appear or the composition just doesn't fit the format of the camera I'm using. Should I just forget making the image? Not with today's technology. I can crop in heavily, then enlarge the file using a plug-in such as Topaz Gigapixel AI or Adobe's new Super Resolution mode and have the best of all worlds. Additionally, I can change the format in-camera or in my editing software if necessary. I would hate to miss making interesting photographs just because I couldn't frame it exactly in-camera.
As far as the school of thought that believes that one should never crop, well, I have a few questions. Personally, I've never seen everything in nature and all things I've wanted to photograph conform to a certain image ratio. It just doesn't happen. Every subject, every scene, every image is different. Also, how do they reconcile the fact that, at different times, they may be photographing with a Hasselblad (1:1 ratio), a 4X5" view camera (4:5 ratio), a 35mm camera (2:3 ratio), a micro4/3 camera (4:3 ratio) or even a Fujifilm 6X17 camera (1:2.8 ratio) but never cropping? Well, which ratio is the correct one? They all can't be correct under this school of thought, can they?
What about you? Do you crop your images? Do you compose very loosely (I like to say sloppily), then crop in all of your images to taste? I compose loosely only when I have vertical lines that need to be made parallel such as a tall building. Do you compose precisely as do I then only crop what's necessary?
Recently, I was listening to an interview with the noted United States West Coast photographer Huntington Witherill. His comments are what started me thinking about this topic. He mentioned that, indeed, he does crop. But, he first composes precisely either with the long or short side of his frame, then only crops the other if necessary. In other words, for example, in a horizontal composition he may carefully compose for the horizontal dimension of this subject, then when editing or printing, he crops only the vertical dimension if necessary. If he composes for the vertical, he then only will consider cropping the horizontal to make it right. Without going back and listening to his words again, I believe he said he only ever crops one or two sides, but never three or all four.
I like it. I think he has found the perfect compromise in technique. Determine your subject, then compose carefully for either the left/right borders or the top/bottom borders and let the other dimension fall as it may. Then, in editing, crop that other dimension only. Brilliant!
Cropping can really enhance a composition. Failing to crop properly can prevent a potentially excellent image to break out of a being a mediocre one. Additionally, poorly cropping can ruin an otherwise wonderful image. You have to be your own judge.
As for me, I'll continue to get my composition precisely framed as possible, then crop if I think it will strengthen my photograph. I've always done that and I don't see any reason to change after all these decades.
But what about crop circles? Should you crop crop circles? Hmmm. I think that discussion is for another day. Lol.
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Dennis A. Mook
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I do crop. I shoot a lot of old buildings, and frequently shooting them in portrait orientation means I get a lot of street in front of the building. I crop to 8x10 or 5x7 to get rid of street. Sometimes when I center a subject in the frame I crop to square. Basically, I'm pretending I have the aspect ratio in camera that I want, and crop to it later.
ReplyDeleteThat’s interesting, Jim. Personally I don’t like how full frame (35mm) verticals look. They look too long and, almost always if I can, I crop them to the 4:5 ratio. I guess that comes from decades of making 8X10” prints in the darkroom.
DeleteNever a never cropper!!
ReplyDeleteI tend to do what you and Huntington Witherill do, depending on the circumstances. I just shot a building that I left some space around for straightening, and plan to crop out the small bit of white sky and uninteresting grass. I have some unusually skinny vertical and horizontal shots :-)
I didn't comment on your previous post under that entry, and I never really thought about the breakdown of tires and the affect. I'm sure my lungs are a mess from living with a father who smoked unfiltered cigarettes for the first 18 years of my life, in the car and inside the house, at a time when no one thought about second hand smoke.
Thanks, Jim. Like yours my father smoked a lot as I was growing up. For a double whammy, my mother smoke a pack of Lucky Strikes every day as well. There was no getting away from it. I tried a cigarette when I was 12 and I remember thinking, “Why would anyone do this?” Never made logical sense to me although I now seem to be a victim of the times as are many of our generation.
DeleteThis is my opinion and I respect others who disagree.
ReplyDeleteI feel that if you view photography as a creative process, then cropping and any other manipulation of the image is appropriate according to the discretion of the artist/photographer.
In Mark Denney's latest YouTube video - https://youtu.be/pLRDsqCK9ec - he addresses how he used the Fuji GFX100s which delivers a whopping 102 mp files. Mark is a very honest and forthright photographer who is willing to share his "secrets"
If I remember correctly, somewhere in this review he explains how with a 102 mp file, he often finds another composition within the original capture and crops nearly half the frame to create a totally different picture (a picture within a picture if you will).
You can imagine that even half a 102 mp file would still leave a resolution of 50 mp.
This is certainly enough resolution in the hands of a skilled photographer to render a perfectly acceptable image.
While I haven't carried things to this extreme because my Fuji X-T2 is only a 24mp sensor, I still crop until I create the image I envision(ed). I think this is an artistic prerogative and anyone has the option to create as they see fit.
It does not mean that others need to find such a rendering interesting, artistic, acceptable, etc. Beauty, as the saying goes, is in the eye of the beholder.
Well stated, Jeff. Thank you for your thoughtful remarks.
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