Cropping Your Photos
BONUS PHOTO CHALLENGE | Experiment with not cropping your next set of photos. Have you learned anything about yourself or your photos? Do you see any major issues with your in camera compositions? Are you heavily reliant on the crop tool?
There are valid reasons for cropping your photos when you’re post processing. Fixing or enhancing composition is the primary purpose that sums up horizons, distractions, and storytelling all in one.
It’s better practice mindful of composition in camera, but things happen, and that’s why there’s Lightroom. However, it’s bad habit to completely allow yourself to think that you can always save your photos by cropping, because the primary downfall is reducing image quality, and no one wants that.
A few key cropping points:
Do your “cropping” in camera. If you’re looking for a specific composition, do your best to nail it in camera so you aren’t sacrificing quality or the end result.
Take multiple shots of the same scene. If you simply aren’t sure if you’re composing something right, it’s best to take a wide shot, then move in closer.
If it bends, don’t crop. This is primarily key for portraits, but a good practice to be mindful of.
Be deliberate. Whether in camera or post-processing, ensure the crop looks intentional and not a mistake (which is where multiple shots can save you).
If your final save is a unique size and can only be printed through a special printer and needs a custom frame, you’re also narrowing down the opportunities of using that image. You never know when friends, family, or past clients might come back years later asking for a photo to print.
A few reasons why you should avoid cropping:
Bad compositions. If you’re shooting without seeing the whole scene as it will be in the shot, you’re losing the opportunity for intimacy and intention, and making for lazy habits.
Reduce quality + resolution. This is truly my personal #1 reason for not over-cropping. I’m thinking of my future self and potential clients who might want to print a photo I took. Keep your size options open by saving the highest resolution possible!
Losing the aspect ratio. If you aren’t mindful of locking your crop tool, you will likely end up changing the original size.
Cropping for a specific format:
If you don’t mind the time it takes to crop for each use, it doesn’t hurt to do this, but don’t forget to save the original high resolution image. This used to be more important to do, but as social media and technology become more harmonious with one another, photos transition pretty seamlessly from one platform to the next these days.
If you’re REALLY into the idea of the perfect file sizes for social media, check out this site that has every option available to you.
I wasn’t going to share any photographers here, because what indicates a single photographer that is “good at cropping”? Yet, as I looked through images I’ve saved and photographers I follow, I did notice that there are some who, in some capacity, crop in their images for a personal effect that might’ve been lost without such mindfulness. It’s completely up to you you whether or not you see what I do, but I hope that you are inspired by some of the more intimate images on these feeds.
HAILEY FARIA | As a family and portrait photographer, you can see many close-cropped and intimate scenes in Hailey’s feed. She mindfully crops people to bring you into the scene, to a romantic couple, or ensure your focus isn’t distracted.
KARIN EDLUND | Full of flowers and other intimate home scenes, Karin creates lovely old-fashioned-looking photos.
KAI HORNUNG | An incredibly talented German landscape photographer, Kai explores a variety of styles and scenes, from wide to somewhat abstract, all with a beautiful use of light and color.