Cropping

Cropping for Effect

Photo by: Jim Huffman

Why crop? Good question. In today's cameras, a fraction of the photograph can be used to make a frame sized photo. The point is, even if the photo in it's entirety is not interesting, a cropped portion of it may be. That cropped portion can be sized to agree (in aspect ratio) with any particular popular frame size in mind.

What will be discussed and shown here, is how to crop for different aspect ratios (frame sizes) and how you can crop to make an interesting photo out of a ho hum photo. Did you know that cropping can be used to change a landscape photo into a portrait photo and vice versa, for instance?

Different Photo Frame Sizes

There are several popular Photo Frame sizes available to display your best photos with. I can think of several and I bet you could even add a few of your own to my list as well.

For starters we will restrict our discussion to the 8x10, the 5x7, and the 4x6 frame sizes. The method shown here to use one size or another, is easy to use on any frame size and basically revolves around the aspect ratio of a specific frame size.

For instance an 8x10 frame has an aspect ratio of 8:10. That is to say, for every 8 units of rise (height) there is 10 units of run (length.) To calculate a photo crop for either the run or the rise, you simply need to know the aspect ratio and the length of one side of the frame you anticipate using.

To determine the aspect ratio of an 8x10 frame, divide rise/run or 8/10= 0.8000. Now that you know the ratio of the sides, if you know the run, you can calculate the rise. e.g. For a run = 10 for instance and x=rise then x/10= 0.8000. If you multiply both sides of the equation by 10 and simplify, you get x=8. You knew that already but I just wanted to show you the mechanics behind actually doing it.

Now say for instance, that you want the horizontal crop to be 2048 pixels and you need to know the setting of the rise (height) in pixels. Substitute in the formula x/2048=0.8000. Multiply both sides by 2048 and you get x=1636.4 pixels. So now you know, for an 8x10 frame the pixel settings for a standard crop with a horizontal of 2048, would be 1636 pixels high. This yields a crop with the same aspect ratio as an 8x10 frame.

Note that an 8x10 frame would be displaying your photo in landscape mode where as a 10x8 frame would be displaying your photo in portrait mode.

For portrait mode, the pixel dimensions would be 2048 rise (height) and 1636 run (length.) Again, whether you select portrait or landscape mode for displaying your photo, it is up to you and how you want to frame the photo you are working with, whether you use cropping to produce the portrait mode or landscape mode. In another words, even if you shot the photo in portrait mode, you can still crop it and display it in landscape mode, if that is what you want to do. It is your creative license to use cropping within the limits of working with the photo you have.

BTW, if you need a tutorial on pixels (picture elements), refer to the tutorial index for the chapter explanation on Pixels for Peoples.

Cropping For Effect

Cropping is a standard way of dealing with photos in that it has always been used to select a particular piece of a photo that is desirable to work with; removed from the rest of the original photo. A crop is always a piece of another larger piece or whole photo. Cropping can retain the original aspect ratio of the original photograph or the crop's aspect ratio can be customized for any specific creative need. Using a crop to comply with a framing aspect ratio is just one available creative cropping choice.

With my camera for instance, it produces a photo that is 8 times larger then what I can possibly display on my laptop screen. Even if I don't use cropping, I still need to resize my photos in order to display them on my screen without the need to scroll.

Instead of resizing only, I often crop my pictures to bring out the detail of what I have photographed. The 1:1 view is often times, not very dramatic. When I show a fraction of that photo using a selective crop, it gives the impression that I photographed the object shown, up close and personal. This adds to the dramatic impact of the photo. Cropping should always be done first on the photo before resizing is done. Often times after a crop, the photo is still to large to display and lastly needs to be resized down to the desired necessary viewing size.

The following photo of a cliff side dwelling in Mesa Verde, CO, is an example of a photo resized smaller to fit my photo journals. Keep in mind that this photo is normally 3,504 x 2336 pixels. It is shown here resized to 400 x 267pixels. The second photo is cropped out of the first photo and then it is also resized to 400 x267 pixels. Notice how you can now pick out the detail of the "Kiva" in the left middle of the second photo, which was near impossible to do with the first photo. (The Kiva is the round structure in the photo. It was used for ceremonial purposes, by the residents of this Indian community.)

When using your specific cropping feature, you may run into an automatic feature which changes the horizontal size according to the vertical size you enter and vice versa. This maintains the aspect ratio of the original photo and is intended to prevent a crop from being tedious, requiring the user to calculate the desired value for the remaining side as well as the original cropping value. For instance, my photos come out in a 3504 x 2336 size which is a 6 x 4 ratio. If I enter a crop of 600 in the horizontal direction, the value of 400 is automatically entered for the vertical value. Optionally, I can turn off this automatic feature by unchecking a box close to the cropping entry. Your software may

have this automatic feature as well and at one time or another, you will need to turn it off. Turning it off will allow you more cropping choices and freedom to create a unique crop, including changing the aspect ratio from landscape to portrait and vice versa. Of course, the downside is that you will have to know or calculate both the horizontal and vertical values to crop with.

Back to actual cropping and photos, the following photo resized once and then cropped three different ways, show examples of cropping for interest and for changing from landscape to portrait mode.

This original photo is resized to 400 pixels wide with obvious problems such as the head of a person in the lower left and excess water as shown

This same photo is now shown cropped to eliminate excess background and again resized to 400 pixels wide

Now this same photo has been cropped to change it to a portrait mode, and then resized to 400 pixels high.

This photo crop is purely about the girl. (This is a 1:1 crop otherwise known as full sized.)

By this point you should be able to discern the different creative aspects of cropping. That is using cropping to eliminate the "opps" I have somebody's head in the picture or to correct for too much negative (background) space. Then there are the creative aspects of changing from landscape mode to portrait mode or cropping to get extreme close ups. There are other creative aspects of cropping which will occur to you at the moment you evaluate your photo. For instance, cropping your ex wife out of a family portrait. I am certain you can think of other creative ways to use cropping as well.

From my perspective, I am always crafting stories around my photos so I crop to enhance the story or vice versa. Stories about the photos for me, is part of the fun of photography.

When you do crop, try to add viewing interest by not centering the main subject. One expert photographer even further suggests to "anchor all four corners" with something interesting. I don't obsess with anchoring all of my corners but I do purposely select an off center venue to display my photos. For examples of cropping off center, just refer to the above ocean pictures. In the above portrait photo for instance, part of the surf board is cut off in order to off center the subject.

When I composed this photo, I purposely decided to do this for a couple of reasons, centering was one of them and the fact that the

surf board adds little or no interest to the photo, was the other. I could have compromised and panned back to include the surf board and still stayed off center but then the image of the girl would have been too small for my taste. Just to make a point, you could have choosen a completely different creative way for your cropping choice, for instance. The point? That cropping is subjective and artsy. No one rule of thumb applies, at all.

It is important to note that all cropping decisions are subjective and done according to the style, whim and the state of mind of the person processing the photo. If you would have done it differently, then by all means, do it differently. It's a style choice and your style should be different then mine.

Another item of interest is Negative Space. We talked a little bit about that when discussing the cropping of the girl in the ocean. Negative space can add or subtract to your photo's interest. What is negative space? Negative space is that area surrounding your subject that is usually out of focus or a single color that is different then your subject being cropped.

Choose your negative space such that it doesn't distract from your subject. Negative space is good, unless there is too much of it or if it is overwhelming, both are not good.

Happy cropping!

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