Cropping - a Treatise on Technique

Cropping - a Treatise on Technique

This article was originally posted on the Creative Arts group about 9 months ago, but A.Mac and I have decided to post these instructional articles on the "group pages" in order to create an immediately accessible manual on technique.

Cropping - not to be confused with crapping, which is a bodily function, or crop farming, which is agricultural.  Although not agri-cultural, cropping does border on the artistic-cultural.  Just a few examples are displayed, comparing photos in original form, and then when edited to crop, explaining why (although that should be obvious). Having just noticed a discussion about cropping on the Creative Arts group, I thought this might be an appropriate diversion.

1.   The main focus here is on those 3 sculptures, and the rest is extraneous.

2.   Distractions are removed

3.   Leading lines are made even stronger, leading to a more visible target.

4.   A street scene is made into a focus on the statue.

5.   The topic is made more obvious by removing unnecessary other images.

6.   A picture that could be of an ancient scene requires the removal of modern buildings and a crane in the background.

7.   The theme is of the artist sketching an old structure, but he is too small to be an important part of the picture, so the cropping brings him more to the fore.

8.   Cropping is also achieved by vignetting.  For this I have chosen a different, more effective photo than I had used in the original article.