0010 # 007623 Snow Vortices from a Cessna 185 on skis STD_7623
 To crop or not to crop: that is the question:  Whether  ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.  Or…  Sorry, I got carried away. 

My view: if you make the click, you have the privilege of finishing the image any way you like.  Now, currently, I try to get the image right in the camera and do not crop the master image.

Still, sometimes I crop a copy of the master to one of my favorite print scales.   Prior to 2007, I shot slides and never cropped. After converting to digital, I started cropping indiscriminately, but after a while, found too many shortcomings to continue cropping.

Today, it depends mostly upon the destination of the image.  If the image will be used in the editorial market, I’ll finish it without cropping.  (Photo editors do not like cropped images.)  Then, sometimes, I’ll make a copy and crop the image to one of my favorite scales to make a print.  I really like 4×5 scale for portraits, both people and animals; sometimes even trees.   For many grand landscapes, I like the 9×16, sometimes called HD, scale.  And, for aircraft, particularly head on ground shots, the 9×16 scale looks great.  An occasional image looks good; square.

 

Framing the Issue

This question has been around the photography community for many years.  Back in the film and slide days, people even cropped slides by putting tape over the edges of a transparency.  And, of course, cropping in the darkroom was relatively easy. In the digital world, it’s even easier.  Now, it’s sort of a subset of the “do you PhotoShop” question.  Although if done well, it’s difficult to tell in the images; the metadata will easily show the reduced file size.

If it’s your image, you can finish it any way you want, right?  Well, right.

Still, cropping can have an impact on how you may be able to use that image.  You may have heard from a pro; move your feet to get the image right in the camera.  That’s easy to say.  Most amateurs know that sometimes you cannot move to get the shot you want.  Things get in your way; mountains, rivers, vacation with other people, enough time, the right lens, etc. Sometimes, you just didn’t have the vision or foresight to get a different lens or move to a better place and you can’t go back to try again.  Vacation is over.

Sometimes you just did not notice distracting elements at the edges of the frame or did notice but could not capture the images without them.  Sometimes, you might like a certain scale like 4×5 for portraits of people and animals.  And, sometimes, you may really like 9×16 HD scale for landscapes and airplanes. So, do you pitch the image or crop it?

There are several  downside impacts of cropping.  Photo editors do not like cropped images and most of the time will not accept them, which many times means they will discard your entire submission. Aggressive cropping can reduce image quality.  Over time, cropping can make the photographer lazy. Sometimes, it reduces the maximum size of acceptable print quality.  And, certainly there are many more.

And, perhaps you are a purest and will not accept a cropped image.

You made the click, finish your image as you will.