Pro Tip: Cropping
Ask yourself these 3 questions:
1. When photographing, have you ever wished for more zoom capabilities so that you could get a few inches closer?
2. Have you ever taken a photo only to realize that the final shot didn’t have the “pop” that you felt was there?
3. Has your composition on a shot felt just a little “off?”
If you answered, “yes” to any of these questions, then let me introduce you to my little friend: cropping. Cropping is one of those tools that enables you to turn your photos from ordinary to extraordinary. Read on to learn the ins and outs of cropping, and check out our tips to help you take the best photo right from the start—no one wants to spend forever in the editing room!
4 Tips for Taking Great Photos
1. Use your zoom lens to frame the photo. If you’re too zoomed out, you won’t have much detail to work with during post-production cropping.
2. Remove visual distractions either physically or by moving the camera’s position. Why bother spending time to clone out a piece of trash when it’s faster to pick it up and throw it away?
3. Don’t crop too tight. You’ll want to keep the final print size in mind when you’re shooting as your camera’s frame may not be the same aspect ratio as many traditional print sizes.
4. Use a higher megapixel setting. This will allow for more flexibility when you’re cropping during post production as well as larger portions of the image to be removed while still providing a sufficient resolution for printing. Of course, the higher the megapixel, the more latitude you’ll have for cropping.
To give you the lowdown on cropping, we’ve invited fine-art photographer Kier Selinsky, who is a member of the American Greetings family, to explain what it is and how you can use cropping to improve your photos. Thanks, Kier!
Cropping 101
Why Crop?
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For General Composition (establish a focal point, allow the viewer’s eye to move throughout the image, etc.)
To Remove Distractions
To Establish Context and History (include items in the frame that support the story you’re trying to convey)
For Dynamic Visual Effect
For Preparing an Image for Printing
Whether you’re using pro-level editing tools, such as PhotoShop, or the free tools that came with your computer or Webshots, learning how to crop is an essential skill to learn. In most cases, cropping is as easy as selecting the crop tool and clicking and dragging from a starting point to the furthest point you want to include.
How Do I Crop?
If you already have images uploaded to Webshots, you can use Picnik to edit those images for free.
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1. Go to Picnik.com
2. Click “Get Started Now”
3. Click on the Webshots logo.
4. Log in using your Webshots member name and password.
Use the drop down menu to view your photos by albums. Select a photo and then click edit.
Select the crop button to crop the image.
Then click and drag the template to select the portion you would like to crop or scale (if you wish to zoom in on the image).
Once complete, just click on “save & share” to name the newly cropped photo (your original will stay as is). Choose the Webshots album that you want the photo to go into, and then click save—your cropped photo will automatically be added to the Webshots album you picked.
How Much Can I Safely Crop?
The amount that you can safely crop depends entirely on what you want to do with the photo after you’re done cropping it. If you want to display it only on the web, such as on Webshots, or email it to friends and family, then you can crop much more than if you intend on getting prints made.
Cropping for viewing on the web or in emails is rather easy: if it looks good when you do it, then you’re done. However, when considering your print options, there are some guidelines, the first and foremost of which is DPI (Dots Per Inch, sometimes called PPI, Pixels Per Inch). Our expert friends at PhotoWorks, who do the printing for our new store, recommend 200 DPI as a minimum printing DPI.
To find your photo’s largest ideal print size, simply take the length and width of the image in pixels and divide them by 200. For example, let’s say your image is 2000×3000 pixels. Divide these by 200 and you get 10×15, so your maximum ideal print size is 10″x15″.
If you want to know the minimum pixel size needed for a print just multiply instead of divide. For a 4″x6″ print, you’ll need your image to be 800×1200 pixels.
What Do I Crop?
In a word: distractions. It’s the number-one killer of photos. Whether it’s a dreary sky, an innocent bystander or a piece of furniture, if it’s not adding to the composition, it’s detracting. Keep in mind that photography is the art of exclusion—in photography, we cut away that which does not contribute.
Another guide for what to crop is the Rule of Thirds. If a photo is missing just a little something to bring forth your original vision, try cropping to bring the elements of the composition in line with the Rule of Thirds.
Any Precautions?
Just one, really: Work on a copy of your photo, not the original. This is true for many photo manipulations as the last thing you want to do is permanently alter a photo in a way that you decide later you don’t like. So before cropping a photo, or making any other permanent alterations, make a copy of it first.
Do you have any tips on cropping? Would you like to share a photo you’ve successfully cropped? Post below in the comments section!
