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Do you crop your DSLR images?



 
 
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  #1  
Old July 31st 05, 11:06 AM
Pixby
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Default Do you crop your DSLR images?

Sometime amount the era I began to use 35mm cameras, I developed a
framing habit so as not to lose any precious resolution when the images
were enlarged. I unconsciously do it now and almost never crop an image
unless it's to accommodate "perfect portrait" size - the 2/3rds thing.

I double booked this weekend and had to engage a contract Photographer
for the 'other' shoot. I've just been going through his work ready to
start printing and discovered a lot of his shots need cropping. Nothing
wrong with his photography, just the fact he leaves lots of room in the
image.

How many other people make cropping a normal event when editing? Just
curious.


--
Douglas...
"You finally make it on the Internet
when you get your own personal Troll".
Mine's called Chrlz. Don't feed him, he bites!
  #2  
Old July 31st 05, 12:59 PM
Jeff R
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"Pixby" wrote in message
...
Sometime amount the era I began to use 35mm cameras, I developed a
framing habit so as not to lose any precious resolution when the images
were enlarged. I unconsciously do it now and almost never crop an image
unless it's to accommodate "perfect portrait" size - the 2/3rds thing.

I double booked this weekend and had to engage a contract Photographer
for the 'other' shoot. I've just been going through his work ready to
start printing and discovered a lot of his shots need cropping. Nothing
wrong with his photography, just the fact he leaves lots of room in the
image.

How many other people make cropping a normal event when editing? Just
curious.



Always edit in the viwfinder- as far as possible.
Yet, being a Pentax user since the 60's, all my
perfectly-framed-in-the-viewfinder shots need cropping anyway.

....and I can't bring myself to allow for the Pentax viewfinder, and risk
losing a vital element.

Nowadays, I guess I use about 4.5 of my 6 Mpix.

--
Jeff R.


  #3  
Old July 31st 05, 01:23 PM
Skip M
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"Pixby" wrote in message
...
Sometime amount the era I began to use 35mm cameras, I developed a framing
habit so as not to lose any precious resolution when the images were
enlarged. I unconsciously do it now and almost never crop an image unless
it's to accommodate "perfect portrait" size - the 2/3rds thing.

I double booked this weekend and had to engage a contract Photographer for
the 'other' shoot. I've just been going through his work ready to start
printing and discovered a lot of his shots need cropping. Nothing wrong
with his photography, just the fact he leaves lots of room in the image.

How many other people make cropping a normal event when editing? Just
curious.


--
Douglas...
"You finally make it on the Internet
when you get your own personal Troll".
Mine's called Chrlz. Don't feed him, he bites!


Generally, I only crop the amount necessary to get the proportions of the
paper, i.e. 8x10, 11x14, A3, etc.
That being said, sometimes I find that, compositionally, an image works
better with additional cropping, and to a point, I'll do that.

--
Skip Middleton
http://www.shadowcatcherimagery.com


  #4  
Old July 31st 05, 02:56 PM
Alan Browne
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Pixby wrote:

Sometime amount the era I began to use 35mm cameras, I developed a
framing habit so as not to lose any precious resolution when the
images were enlarged. I unconsciously do it now and almost never crop
an image unless it's to accommodate "perfect portrait" size - the
2/3rds thing.

I double booked this weekend and had to engage a contract
Photographer for the 'other' shoot. I've just been going through his
work ready to start printing and discovered a lot of his shots need
cropping. Nothing wrong with his photography, just the fact he leaves
lots of room in the image.

How many other people make cropping a normal event when editing? Just
curious.


Like you, I'm a "frame filler" and most often use the entire shot in
print. Having said that, I have no reservations about post cropping out
clutter or cropping to enhance presentation. For that matter, cropping
out 10% - 20% in a dimension has little effect on the resolution of an 8
x 12 print.

I shot 1st Communion portraits for a pro last year and he was very
pleased with my framing. He had a pro working for him who usually shot
MF (6x6) and who left enormous room around the 35mm shots for the 1st
communions. He said that the other fellow was so used to 6x6 and fat
framing that he had trouble making tighter framed shots.

Cheers,
Alan.


--
-- r.p.e.35mm user resource: http://www.aliasimages.com/rpe35mmur.htm
-- r.p.d.slr-systems: http://www.aliasimages.com/rpdslrsysur.htm
-- [SI] gallery & rulz: http://www.pbase.com/shootin
-- e-meil: Remove FreeLunch.
  #5  
Old July 31st 05, 03:05 PM
RichA
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On Sun, 31 Jul 2005 13:28:41 GMT, John A. Stovall
wrote:

On Sun, 31 Jul 2005 20:06:09 +1000, Pixby
wrote:

Sometime amount the era I began to use 35mm cameras, I developed a
framing habit so as not to lose any precious resolution when the images
were enlarged. I unconsciously do it now and almost never crop an image
unless it's to accommodate "perfect portrait" size - the 2/3rds thing.

I double booked this weekend and had to engage a contract Photographer
for the 'other' shoot. I've just been going through his work ready to
start printing and discovered a lot of his shots need cropping. Nothing
wrong with his photography, just the fact he leaves lots of room in the
image.

How many other people make cropping a normal event when editing? Just
curious.


Always to get the maximum effect I'm looking for in the image and I
don't stay with the normal ratios. I do what ever makes the most
esthetically pleasing image to me.


On thing that is strange is that some people who never liked 6 x 6
in film end up cropping square if the subject is roundish or square.
Why have all that "wing space" if it isn't really needed?
-Rich
  #6  
Old July 31st 05, 04:32 PM
Steve Cutchen
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Default

In article , Pixby
wrote:

How many other people make cropping a normal event when editing? Just
curious.


I shoot a lot of indoor volleyball. I really don't have time to frame
properly and still get the shot unless I'm shooting one particular
player and can follow her rather than the play. So cropping is a
wonderful capability that digital has made easy. Since most of my work
goes to web sites or video, the cropping does not seriously affect
quality.
  #7  
Old July 31st 05, 04:52 PM
Charlie Self
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Default


Pixby wrote:
Sometime amount the era I began to use 35mm cameras, I developed a
framing habit so as not to lose any precious resolution when the images
were enlarged. I unconsciously do it now and almost never crop an image
unless it's to accommodate "perfect portrait" size - the 2/3rds thing.

I double booked this weekend and had to engage a contract Photographer
for the 'other' shoot. I've just been going through his work ready to
start printing and discovered a lot of his shots need cropping. Nothing
wrong with his photography, just the fact he leaves lots of room in the
image.

How many other people make cropping a normal event when editing? Just
curious.


I sometimes crop completely in the viewfinder, but in a lot of shots,
magazine editors want space around the central subject to display
heads, captions, whatever they choose. Thus, space is left for what the
paying customer wants. Because probably 60-70% of my work is aimed at
magazines, that kind of shooting gets to be a habit (but it is more
desired with certain types of magazines than others, so the habit can
also become a problem).

I've found that with full vehicle shots, extra space around the subject
is a help. For individual features of the vehicle, tight cropping,
often tighter and shaped differently than the sensor, is wanted...but
in other cases, filling the frame is fine, leaving final crop to the
graphics department.

For some kinds of articles, say on woodworking tools, filling the frame
at close up ranges is great. Recently, I did a piece on a jointer that
uses cutters that are about 3/8" square. I went macro with those, next
to a dime, and also did a near macro shot of the entire 8" wide head.
The latter was cropped.

Worked really well.

It differs, in other words, depending on what the customer wants.

  #8  
Old July 31st 05, 08:10 PM
Toa
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Default

When taking candid photos of people I usually leave some vacant space around
the subject to allow for movement. Means I usually crop some of the shot
afterwards.

Toa


  #9  
Old July 31st 05, 08:48 PM
Jan Böhme
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Default

On Sun, 31 Jul 2005 20:06:09 +1000, Pixby
wrote:

Sometime amount the era I began to use 35mm cameras, I developed a
framing habit so as not to lose any precious resolution when the images
were enlarged. I unconsciously do it now and almost never crop an image
unless it's to accommodate "perfect portrait" size - the 2/3rds thing.

I double booked this weekend and had to engage a contract Photographer
for the 'other' shoot. I've just been going through his work ready to
start printing and discovered a lot of his shots need cropping. Nothing
wrong with his photography, just the fact he leaves lots of room in the
image.

How many other people make cropping a normal event when editing? Just
curious.


Maybe this was a question mostly for pros, but anyway, here are my
amateur practices:

I crop routinely in two different sets of situations.

1) When I know that I won't have the time to frame properly, or when
I take a close candid shot without looking into the viewfinder, I go
wider than reasonably needed so not to miss anything, and crop
afterwards. Maybe very few pros would take candid shots this way, but
in my experience a fraction of human subjects - perhaps 10% in total,
going up to say 30% in teenage boys - are only possible to photograph
in anything that even vaguely resembles a normal likeness if they are
not aware that a shot is being taken when it is.

2) When I shoot wildlife, I consistently use cropping, sometimes quite
heavy cropping. Regardless of glass, you never get close enough to
small, shy birds...

Otherwise, I sometimes crop lightly to improve the composition, and
occasionlly crop more heavily to rescue one subject in the image if
this subject comes out very well, and the other one is blinking or has
an otherwise unsuitable facial expression.

But of course I always try to frame as competently as I can within the
existing time constraints.


Jan Böhme
Korrekta personuppgifter är att betrakta som journalistik.
Felaktigheter utgör naturligtvis skönlitteratur.
  #10  
Old July 31st 05, 09:14 PM
Paul Mitchum
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Pixby wrote:

Sometime amount the era I began to use 35mm cameras, I developed a
framing habit so as not to lose any precious resolution when the images
were enlarged. I unconsciously do it now and almost never crop an image
unless it's to accommodate "perfect portrait" size - the 2/3rds thing.

I double booked this weekend and had to engage a contract Photographer
for the 'other' shoot. I've just been going through his work ready to
start printing and discovered a lot of his shots need cropping. Nothing
wrong with his photography, just the fact he leaves lots of room in the
image.

How many other people make cropping a normal event when editing? Just
curious.


Personally, I like to minimize cropping. But for some things, like tiny
birds far away or whatever, it's unavoidable. It'd be nice to have the
glass to shoot them, but I don't, and so I shoot RAW and upsample the
image during conversion. Then I crop what I need to. This gives much
better results than enlarging a cropped image, especially if the
original image was a JPEG.
 




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