Enhancing your Images through Cropping
Cropping is a crucial aspect of image composition. Shooting out in the field with dangerous or shy animals while possibly enduring some form of physical discomfort might comprise your ability to compose the shot exactly as you would have liked it. Cropping can change the viewer’s point of view for the final image and remove distracting information so your adjustments will be more accurate.
Reasons to crop:
Keep in mind when using a crop tool in whatever image editor you are using that it will most likely permanently delete the cropped pixels. You should develop a technique to crop while still retaining the original file incase you change your mind or want to tweak the composition.
Recomposing the image
The original contained too much foreground and the material on the left did not add to the story. Cropping out empty foreground and some of the sky focused on the action and maintained the panoramic feel of the image.
Less is more
Too much detail can cause the animals to become lost among the busy background. Eliminate just enough of the peripheral items as to show the animal’s environment (context) without losing the story of their camouflage and hiding techniques.
Enhancing Perspective
I cropped this simple giraffe image so that the viewer's vantage point appears to be lower making the giraffe's height emphasized as well as exaggerating the slight angles. The effect is subtle, but it makes gives a standard composition a lttle more impact. .
Using Vignette with cropping
Edge vignette compliments good cropping decisions by further focusing the eyes to the subject matter. Large edge burning or lightening can also be a replacement for cropping off edge information by deemphasizing what was there. I also added a vignette to the giraffe image too keep the focus on the long lines.
Back
