What % of keepers do you end up cropping?

[ottor]

I have a feeling I'm not doing enough cropping to make a better pic - how much do you do on an average? Is that a big part of your post processing?

tks,

 

[tirediron]

Pretty much 100%; with very rare exceptions, all of my images are cropped to a standard/custom print-size and/or for artistic (as I see it) improvment. Very few images won't benefit from some crop.

 

[icassell]

I must admit that I crop pretty often. At this stage I don't usually need to trim too much off, but little bits can make a big difference.

 

[rufus5150]

I would say about 95% of my images are either 4x5 or 5x7 ratio, with some 11x14's thrown in for good measure. I crop almost 100% of my images, but I go into the shot framing it in camera so I know what I want to do on the other end.

 

[Dwig]

I have a feeling I'm not doing enough cropping to make a better pic - how much do you do on an average? Is that a big part of your post processing?

tks,

In theory, you should crop in-camera and never crop in post processing. In practice, you frequently need to crop after the fact. I crop the vast majority of my pictures, but rarely crop for any reason other than shape.

The pictures that I take are very, very rarely utilitarian (e.g. vaction snaps, family documentation, ...) that will be printed as 4x6 prints, or any other standard print size. My personal work (I also shoot site images for mockups for the signs I design as part of my day job) is purely for art. Rarely is the best composition a match for the aspect ratio of my camera's sensor. I frame as tightly as practical in camera leaving only the necessary trimming to alter the aspect ratio for post processing. A long horizontal landscape will be framed to fit the width of the image. The resulting excess sky and/or foreground that the camera must capture will be the only thing cropped later.

Less experienced photographers often shoot first and think about composition later. They are the ones that rely the heaviest on post processing cropping, often to the detriment of image quality.

 

[manaheim]

I find that I crop almost all images at least a little. That being said, I find that I crop fewer of them substantially than I used to. Now I generally deliberately leave a little extra in the frame so I can do distortion correction and whatnot without borking the image... I probably aggressively crop 10-20% nowadays... and most of those are me just desperately trying to make a good image out of what is otherwise a FAIL.

 

[table1349]

I have a feeling I'm not doing enough cropping to make a better pic - how much do you do on an average? Is that a big part of your post processing?

tks,

In theory, you should crop in-camera and never crop in post processing. In practice, you frequently need to crop after the fact. I crop the vast majority of my pictures, but rarely crop for any reason other than shape.

The pictures that I take are very, very rarely utilitarian (e.g. vaction snaps, family documentation, ...) that will be printed as 4x6 prints, or any other standard print size. My personal work (I also shoot site images for mockups for the signs I design as part of my day job) is purely for art. Rarely is the best composition a match for the aspect ratio of my camera's sensor. I frame as tightly as practical in camera leaving only the necessary trimming to alter the aspect ratio for post processing. A long horizontal landscape will be framed to fit the width of the image. The resulting excess sky and/or foreground that the camera must capture will be the only thing cropped later.

Less experienced photographers often shoot first and think about composition later. They are the ones that rely the heaviest on post processing cropping, often to the detriment of image quality.

Glad you said "In Theory." Until the camera makers make sensors that change size to 8X10, 5X7, 4X6 etc dimensions with view finders that do the same I will be cropping. :lmao:

 

[rufus5150]

Well, then the client wants the same shot in both a 5x7 and an 8x10. Clients don't take 'I don't crop, sorry' as an answer

 

[musicaleCA]

I try to frame and compose the image as best I can in-camera. Occasionally I must crop aggressively, though that is usually because of a technical limitation (lens isn't long enough to capture the moment framed as tight as I want). Like rufus, I also crop for 5x7 and 8x10, but I think ahead about shots that may need to be cropped as such and frame in-camera accordingly.

 

[dxqcanada]

Are you talking about cropping to fit the image to a specific print format ... or cropping to improve the composition of the image ?

Other than cropping to fit the print size ... I will generally only crop about 10% of my images, due to limitations of focal length ... and another 10% to improve composition ... I try to make sure of composition before I shoot it (I spend a lot of time looking at the scene).

 

[AtlPikMan]

I would say i crop around 90 percent of my shots. Its not that they need it but in most cases it makes the composition. In most cases its just to bring the subject in closer.

 

[Josh66]

Not counting cropping to fit a print size (which I do almost every time I print...), I'd say maybe 80% of mine get cropped a little. Usually just from straightening, but that still crops some off. I rarely crop to change the compostion.


One time I find that I have to crop most often is when I shoot in my home-made light tent.

...I would love 100% viewfinder coverage. Often, it looks fine in the viewfinder, but when I look at it on the computer I can see the edge of the paper (which is not visible in my 95% viewfinder).