Cropping...

[Dave^]

Are there any "Rules" (other than the rule of thirds) as to how to crop pictures for best effect?

I took a load yesterday at Croft, which I'll be faffing with/ruining tomorrow and can't decide whether or not to crop each one individually to whatever ration suits, or stick to a 4:3 crop for them all...

They were taken from the pit wall, so pretty close (struggled a bit as I only took my 55-200 thinking I'd be miles away from the action as usual! Typical!) front three quarter view...

[jimmy306]

Hey,

I always used to crop with no restrictions on dimensions, and just did whatever i felt looked best. That was until i started printing my pictures, in which case you really do have to crop to a set photographic ratio (5x4,6x4,7x5,7.55 etc). SO basically it depends on if you want to print them, but you dont need to stick to the 4x3 ratio, if you wanted something longer and thinner, you could crop to a 6x4 ratio for example.

Edited by jimmy306 on Tuesday 6th April 14:04

[Dave^]

I (probably) wont be printing them, but when I stick them on Flickr, I'd rather them be displayed it a more uniform manor rather than here, there and everywhere...

OCD I guess...

might go for 16:9... :scrachchin:

[timhum]

I stick to the same ratio as the sensor 3-2 and find it looks natural and well balanced.

[//dean]

I always try and stick to the correct ratio. I use the following method:

Open image in PS
Duplicate image
Resize one of the images (A) constraining the proportions
Move image B onto image A, giving you a new layer
Move image B around until it fits nicely
Flatten image
Save

[Dave^]

I'm using Lightroom, so it's a case of setting the crop ratio, then adjusting to size 'til there's something I'm happy with...

16x9:


3x2:


Hmmm

[4hero]

3x2 Dave

[Dave^]

Bah!!! I've already done 20 of them!!



3x2 it is then...

[TooLateForAName]

16x9 !

:-)