 Scott Johnson |
Is Cropping Cheating? It bothers me when I take a nice shot only later to find out after cropping it on my computer that I could have framed it much better. OK, it happens with almost every photo, and it can be very discouraging at times. Is it "cheating" to submit the cropped version as your photo? Does a cropped print fit into a different category to art enthusiasts than one that wasnt cropped?
|
|
|
|
||
|
Damian P. Gadal |
Cropping is fine!
|
|
|
|
||
|
Bob Cammarata |
Cropping is just another technological tool we have at our disposal. Crop all you want ... and don't lose any sleep over it!
|
|
|
|
||
|
Scott Johnson |
I guess that wasn't the response I was expecting. Take the contest on this Web site, for instance. It almost seems unfair that ... their photo should be able to compete with someone else's photo that was composed perfectly to begin with. Well, I guess that's life, so I'll just have to accept it. It seems like pure and good photography loses out here though.
|
|
|
|
||
- Gregory LaGrange Contact Gregory LaGrange Gregory LaGrange's Gallery |
What's marketing have to do with it. There's plenty of marketed photos that aren't originally full frame. How many people need auto focus? If you're worried about then just get better at it.
|
|
|
|
||
|
Bob Cammarata |
To clarify my answer a bit: I should not have included negative film in the marketing referral, since it's common practice to crop the image during printing. I try to keep my scanned slides as "pure" as the original ... compositionally. If a buyer sees an image on my Web site he or she would like to use, and needs the transparency, I want them to feel confident that the original slide has the same compositional integrity and framing as the image they saw on-line. I will, however, crop an image to better fit my computer screen for Web use, and occasionally crop out specs and dust, which appear on the edges of the frame that I missed while cleaning the slide rather than re-scan it - as long as I don't deviate too much from the framing of the original image. Is this "cheating"? Maybe, but why not use the tools we have at our disposal if it makes life simpler?
|
|
|
|
||
|
Damian P. Gadal |
If cropping isn't allowed, why not scrap the concept of digital? After all, you're not creating anything physical, just changing the behavior of a group of atoms to produce a virtual image. But nothing physical really exists - just like uploading ... you're not really sending anything but an instruction set, which tells another group of atoms how to behave (this Web site is virtual). Perhaps we should all go back to film ... wait, isn't that just the chemical equivalent?
|
|
|
|
||
|
Scott Johnson |
I posted this question because I wanted to get other opinions, because I am completely new to all of this. I think I have what I need. Cropping is fine. Thanks.
|
|
|
|
||
|
Joe Terni |
I know you are happy now that cropping is fine, but I must add this from an amateur. I take a lot of shots of boats, etc., on the river. I am limited to how close I can get to the boats, and I am also limited to my x3 zoom lens. My ideal shot would be more of the boats and less of the surroundings, but I take what I can with my lens without walking on water and crop out what I never wanted in the first place. Ditto another few shots I have taken of people standing on a jetty with a nice scene of a boat club behind. Trouble is there is a rubbish bin on the jetty right next to the perfect position to photograph the person/s with the boat club nicely in the scene. Yes, I have to crop out the bin.N ow the bin itself may be a photographic shot in itself ... but ...
|
|
|
|
||
|
Phil Forister |
To me, photography is an art form. I try to get the best origional pictures in the field - but I process 100% of my images in photoshop. The digital darkroom is the finishing work of this artform. You would not have problems with a painter using different brushes and techniques, so why is it different for your artform?
|
|
|
|
||
fax-sinclair.com - Fax Sinclair Contact Fax Sinclair Fax Sinclair's Gallery |
Hi, I would just like to say that using my first digital camera with only 3 megapixels taught me to frame in the camera because I did not want to loose any of my pixels. This is what made me a better photographer. Of course it is OK to crop, but it is also good to strive for the perfect framing.
|
|
|
|
||
|
Damian P. Gadal |
I agree and try to do the same thing, I don't like to spend much time post processing. I'd rather shoot the picture, download and move on to more shooting...
|
|
|
|
||
|
Steven Chaitoff |
You know, that über-famous picture of Che Guevara taken by Alberto Korda, that capures the very essence of his personality and is one of the best-known images of all time and has been printed on everything imaginable....anyway, that was a BIG crop. In fact, the original had some other random guy in it! Anyway, that doesn't seem to bother anyone, so crop away.
|
|
|
|
||
|
Damian P. Gadal |
I agree...
|
|
|
|
||
|
William Koplitz |
Something catches my eye and makes me capture the image in the first place. Unfortunately it's not always clear what that something was and sometimes I look at my photographs and say "wow" - as if the image was captured by someone else. The only place I can't crop is in video and motion picture film. If you want to train your eye to make tighter compositions shoot video for practice. It would be really sad to miss a "wow" moment because you were blocking the shot too tight - but then you wouldn't know, would you.
|
|
|
|
||
|
Steven Chaitoff |
You can edit a crop on video...right? Unless you stretch the frame too way far to cover the output, the shot should be fine, maybe a little blurry. And if you're shooting high-def, you can use the extra field lines just like a "digital zoom" sort of thing on a large Mpixel camera i.e. crop what you want and then refill the output area with virtually no loss in quality...just resolution.
|
|
|
|
||
|
John A. Lind |
Cropping is not "cheating" unless there are some rules for submission to a juried show that prohibit it. Cropping has been done for many decades . . . sometimes because the photographer cannot frame only what is desired for technical reasons (focal lengths available for the desired perspective). OTOH, it *is* something to be avoided. As already mentioned it increases the post-processing work, and it reduces the level of enlargement that can be made. I attempt to do everything possible "in camera" to minimize (or eliminate entirely) having to do anything afterward. -- John Lind
|
|
|
|
||
|
This old forum is now archived. Use improved Forum here
Report this Thread |
||