I love to go back through my photos to find some tiny detail that I didn’t see when I was taking the shot. I get brave (to remind myself I’m still learning) and crop the photo to see what it would’ve looked like had I got that great shot the first moment I took the photo.
Great photographers are able to do that. They are able to frame the shot just right in their camera so that the editing doesn’t ruin the quality of the original photo. At least I imagine they do so? Right?
There is only you and your camera. The limitations in your photography are in yourself, for what we see is what we are. – Ernst Haas
I’m still learning about composition and how to frame the best shot. And sometimes it works for me, other times it doesn’t, that’s when I play with cropping the photos instead. The fun of seeing what might have been tends to intrigue me.
To me, photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place…I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them. – Elliott Erwitt
Here are two subjects that I took photos of on the same early evening. I could’ve waited a bit longer to get better golden hour lighting, but it was still fun to play around and see what happens.
The art of photography is all about directing the attention of the viewer. – Steven Pinker
I kinda like lichen as a subject. (I’ve posted photos of it before here and here in my little lichen garden…and on a road trip through memory lane so yeah, I liken lichen as a photography object!)
Here’s the first shot. Shows the natural debris at the base of the tree and the colorful lichen, but meh…
Crop a section of the shot…meh again…
Or this…?
How about this…the best I could do, it wasn’t my greatest lichen moment. But damn, I sure love all the details lichen makes as it grows.
This year is the first year I have planted new flowers in a long time. I’m fascinated with the various blossoms of my Black Eyed Susan’s this year, they are in full bloom finally.
What happens when I crop just one flower and blur out the others?
And the unexpected tiny bug moved slightly as a detail. I missed it in the zoomed out originals.
The bug won the show today! See my feature photo for a bit of cropping magic!
Photography is the simplest thing in the world, but it is incredibly complicated to make it really work. – Martin Parr
Oh yeah, by the way, I agree, it’s the devil in the details that makes photography so much fun to learn!
Post inspiration – Nancy Merrill’s Photography Challenge – Devil in the Details
PS – I’ve heard it is best to crop in the camera, not in the shop, as in Photoshop? I don’t know…what do you think? Do you crop your photos? What is your favorite trick for framing the shot in the camera so you don’t need to crop? Share your tips in comments or links to your posts, I’ll check them out!!
I crop because most of my photos are candid shots with my phone, and eliminating clutter around the subject is helpful. 😊
Great lesson and post. Reminds me of my beautiful sunflower shots I took on vacation…I cropped some of those.
Thank you, Claudette! Candid shots are the best – and I smiled remembering your recent post about clutter – I remember those days. 🙂 I appreciate hearing your insight about cropping. I hope you find some quiet moments once school starts to enjoy some views of flowers! 😉
I will. Maybe it’ll improve my grumpy mood to look at some of my flower shots. 🙂
I love your Black Eyed Susan! Bright yellow flowers never fail to make me smile.
Framing a photo is something I’m still working on. Too much in the shot & I lose the crispness in cropping; too little & I run the risk of accidentally clipping a detail & missing the shot. I’ve never done any editing in my camera. That’s the first time I’ve even heard that tip.
Thank you, Laura, I appreciate you sharing your thoughts. I love yellow flowers too. It sounds like you play around with the shots like I do. I still love that shot you took and posted on the 26th! A long time ago, I watch FroKnows Photo videos about shooting in RAW mode. If I remember correctly, he was the one that said that. But…don’t tell him I told you so! Happy Shooting to you!
These photos are gorgeous. I guess most professional photographers get the shot right the first time. After all that is what they do. But cropping photos can be fun. Sometimes I wish we cold crop our lives and eliminate the imperfections.
Thank you, Andrew. Yes, cropping can be fun – it took me a long time to discover that I could do that! Intriguing thought about eliminating our imperfections…! Or do those imperfections have the opportunity to make us attractive because we’ve embraced our uniquenesses? Hmm…I shall ponder that for a bit!
Profound thoughts. We are molded by our imperfections. I guess I will keep mine. Have s beautiful day.
Yes, we are! Enjoy your day too!!
Thanks
I am a BIG proponent of cropping. I do it ALL the time. At one of my photography club meetings however, they stated if you like to crop, at least have a camera with more than 24 pixels. My current one has 19. I was going to buy the next camera up from mine to get more pixels when I looked at the price: $750 just for the shell. No lenses. What did I do?
I quit the photography club.
My teacher says a good photographer doesn’t need to crop. They do the cropping while taking the photo. I can’t do that. I still crop. I don’t know until I get my photo up on my large computer screen, where the perfectly balanced photo is going to fall. Cropping helps me a lot. So, I continue to crop.
It’s funny you quoted Elliott Erwitt. I knew his wife, Susan Erwitt (Ringo) She was with a famous director, Barry Sonnenfeld at the time (she married him in 1989). More gossip for my memoir. LOL!
How many pixels is your current camera?
Yes, I like the cropping too so I can frame the thirds of the photo better like you said. I’m a big proponent of shooting from the hip or the ground, so I can’t see what the hell I’m taking a photo of until editing. That provides another fun factor for me. Your photos are great, I always enjoy seeing what you’ve captured. That’s so awesome that you knew Elliott…the scoop sounds interesting! I have a Canon Digital Rebel XSi (I googled it to find your answer…it was my daughter’s first camera and she gave it to me to play with when she upgraded so other than knowing how to hold it and take photos, I’m clueless! It comes with a 22.2 x 14.8 mm CMOS sensor, which has a diagonal of 26.68 mm (1.05″) and a surface area of 328.56 mm².
Your camera has 12.2 megapixels. If we both were members of that snobbish photography club I joined, we’d be thrown out. Can you imagine? I don’t have the money nor the resources to keep up with the trends. So, I’m doing the best I can with the least I have. I paid $600 for my camera and 2 lenses years ago. I have a Canon Rebel 5Ts. The new ones are internet ready. I live off the automatic settings. If I ever do upgrade it will be to a newer model that has a trunkload of automatic settings. I can’t figure out manual settings, ISO etc. etc. It’s hopeless for me. Been trying for thirty years. My brain just can’t do it.
I have a good eye. But that’s about it. I love photography and am so thankful for the new technologies. Just wish one day I can afford them!
BTW, I love your photos. So inspirational. Other than my sister (who is an award winning photographer) you’re about the only other photographer I can communicate with. So, thanks for that!
LOL – I bet we’d have fun being thrown out or challenging the snobs, eh? We are doing the best we can with what we have! I challenged myself to learn glimpses of the manual settings. I feel awkward when I put it into auto, but I can’t tell you why!?! I hope someday to be good enough to warrant purchasing a new camera! I love your photos and thank you for finding inspiration in mine! I enjoy chatting with you about photography – thank you, too for that!!
I have been known to take over 100 photographs at a concert and I try to crop as I shoot. I actually don’t do much editing of the photos once I’ve taken them. I’ll have to try doing that. Thanks for the tips!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Janet! I’m impressed that you’re able to get shots at concerts! I’d be too distracted :-)! Hey, by the way, what’s on the docket for September challenges?
I’m not sure about September challenges. Let’s make up one!
I’m all ears! 🙂
I have a Nikon D610 with 24.3 MP, shoot in RAW, and edit with LightRoom and Photoshop (mostly PS). If you are looking to upgrade, you need to consider the sensor size along with MP. If the sensor isn’t large enough to handle the information from the number of MPs, your photos won’t look sharp and crisp, not matter what you do to them. I occasionally crop shots, but when I deliver them to clients, I will usually give them both the uncropped and the cropped images, but not always. It depends on why I cropped. I love the edit on the black-eyed Susan. You won’t be able to enlarge it much, but it’s definitely a keeper. While not cropping is ideal, it’s not always possible, and I can pretty much guarantee you that a lot of professional photographers crop; they just might not admit to it. 🙂 Thanks for joining the challenge!
Nancy, thank you for sharing your insight and tips. Your photographs always impress me. It’s nice to know that in the right situation, cropping works and can be used! Glad you liked the black-eyed Susan! It was fun to join in on your challenge again, and I’ll be back!
You’re welcome! Good luck with your experiments. I love playing around with all aspects of photography.
I always leave extra room around my shot for cropping. I like to play around with the crop and change the focus of the photo. If I had to crop with the camera I would go crazy for sure.
That’s a good tip! Thank you for sharing!