To Crop or Not To Crop

[DrRoebuck]

As the one who started the "crop/not crop" controversy, I'm glad I found this thread. I will just reiterate what I said in that thread, which is that, to me, it seems a lot smarter to spend creative/constructive energy on composition, rather than cropping. But by all means I was not saying one should never crop. I was just saying that when shooting, one should shoot as if they don't have the ability to crop during PP.

[Stupendous Man]

I would not steer beginners away from cropping. As a beginner myself, I have found quite a bit of success by cropping pictures to make them look the way I want them to. And in the process of doing so, I learn a bit more about how to better frame the pictures I take next time. Also, someone mentioned sports photography, and they were right on the money. When I photograph a sporting event, my pics always seem to come out looking like snapshots. However, after going through them and cropping, they look like they were taken from Sports Illustrated! (well okay, maybe not)

[jgredline]

I would not steer beginners away from cropping. As a beginner myself, I have found quite a bit of success by cropping pictures to make them look the way I want them to. And in the process of doing so, I learn a bit more about how to better frame the pictures I take next time. Also, someone mentioned sports photography, and they were right on the money. When I photograph a sporting event, my pics always seem to come out looking like snapshots. However, after going through them and cropping, they look like they were taken from Sports Illustrated! (well okay, maybe not)

These are my feelings as well..

[another view]

it seems a lot smarter to spend creative/constructive energy on composition, rather than cropping

I would not steer beginners away from cropping

I think you're both right. Shoot with the intention of getting everything as close to the finished image in-camera as possible, but don't be afraid to look at the images later (with the benefit of hindsight) to see if a different crop works better.

[WesternGuy]

I find that cropping is sometimes an unfortunate requirement. :mad2: I like to shoot wildlife - waterfowl, birds, etc. Unfortunately (?) the city I live in is surrounded by farmland, all fenced and posted No Trespassing and if if you could trespass, you have to watch out for that feisty cow or bull that may not want you around. Most of the ponds with waterfowl are contained within these fenced areas and all I can do is take pictures from the gravel roads. This means unless the birds are close to the road I have to use a long telephoto and even then I get a lot of stuff I do not want, or need, in the image, therefore to get what I want in the final image, I selectively crop parts of it. Notice I said selectively. I try not to crop for the sake of cropping because sometimes the original image is a good picture.

Anyway, my 0.02.

WesternGuy