Crop = Crap.

[CowgirlMama]

PS...having 21mp RAW to start from helps greatly!

This part is the key. I remember the first digital my family owned. It shot something like 2 mp. Yeah, don't crop that, if you want to print. I can crop quite a bit on the 6D's photos, though, because they're massive and I don't print bigger than 8X10 with very rare exceptions (I've printed *one* poster for a friend). FWIW, the poster was printed from a majorly cropped photo from the XTi. Shows how long ago I did it, too.

 

[Tinderbox (UK)]

Sometimes you just have to crop, my first digital camera was an Sanyo with 0.3mp that`s vga

John.

 

[amolitor]

It's good for you to strive always to get it right in camera.

It's surprising how often not cropping is the right answer, too. Sometimes your hands and eyes actually know what they're doing.

 

[manaheim]

In my experience any theory that summarily dismisses a method as "crap"... is crap. I have yet to find a single thing in photography that does not have its uses.

FOR EXAMPLE...

If you are taking a picture of a building and you crop it to the size you need in camera... and later on you get home and decide you need to perspective correct it. Guess what? You're going to be cropping a lot of things you NEED in that shot just because the perspective correction will pinch part of the image.

So there's at least ONE example where you NEED to make sure to shoot the shot wide, and therefore your assertion is devalued.

 

[jenko]

What about the fact that nearly every other artistic medium practices revision? The exception being watercolor, because you just can't go back?

Even sculptors of marble create molds and drawings before they embark on their final piece. Many probably make little revisions as they go into it and make mistakes. Revision is simply a way to refine an original impulse.

I just wonder why revision in photography became so taboo compared to other artistic mediums where it is almost always encouraged and thought of as part of the artistic process. I think limitations and traditions are good for artists and they can help create more interesting work, but it seems to me the artist should define those limitations and adopt traditions that push their work forward rather than mindlessly conforming to something they have heard or read.

 

[KenC]

I end up with more than a few square crops, many of which I visualized that way in camera, BTW. I suppose I'll have to go find a square-format digital camera and carry that around too.

 

[cynicaster]

Every armchair photography pundit on the planet could call me names for cropping in post, and I'd still shamelessly shout from the mountaintops that cropping is an indispensable capability that I use all the time, and will continue to do so.

 

[DGMPhotography]

Why is this even a thing? Haha, I feel like this is a troll thread - of course cropping is an important tool, and we all seem to be in agreement about that.

 

[Braineack]

My sensor is already cropped; I'm doomed from the start.

 

[480sparky]

My honest biggest problem is that I tend to crop way too tight in the camera which tends to leave me lopping off bits of things that shouldn't be lopped off. Cropping a little wide in camera is, I think, a far better habit than cropping too much - you can always shave off a bit in editing; you can't do the reverse.

I always intentionally 'overshoot' so I have plenty of space to not only crop to a specific aspect ratio, but also to correct for perspective / keystoning, lens distortion (barrel, pincushion and even mustache), rotating a slightly not-so-level/plumb shot, etc.

 

[amolitor]

Why is this even a thing? Haha, I feel like this is a troll thread - of course cropping is an important tool, and we all seem to be in agreement about that.

It's a thing because not everyone agrees with it, actually. Saying "don't crop" is actually pretty much the same thing as "nail the exposure in camera", it's just a different dimension, and nobody gets all testy when someone says "You should try to get the exposure correct in the camera".

 

[gsgary]

Don't crop in PP. Crop in camera. Otherwise, you produce crap.

Yes...if you shoot staged shots like most of you do or are a wizard at street shooting.

For the rest of us, if a street shot is crap uncropped...you crop it to clean up the crap.

HCB never cropped his, nor do i, if i have to crop i think i failed. If something is in the frame with street photography it was meant to be there

 

[Ilovemycam]

Don't crop in PP. Crop in camera. Otherwise, you produce crap.

Yes...if you shoot staged shots like most of you do or are a wizard at street shooting.

For the rest of us, if a street shot is crap uncropped...you crop it to clean up the crap.

HCB never cropped his, nor do i, if i have to crop i think i failed. If something is in the frame with street photography it was meant to be there

That is OK. We all have our likes and dislikes. HCB was the godfather of street work. Maybe you are a wizard as well as HCB, I don't know?

For me, I am on a much lower level. So, I crop 80% of my work or more. Not heavy crops, but yes sometimes heavy. If a crop has to be too much and the photo is bad quality from the crop, then it was not meant to be and trashed. That is my guideline for cropping...is it doable?

Ruining a photo due to dogmatic ego based determination is against my religion. I put image first, ego last. I try to be flexible. If people don't like my work becasue of cropping, no big deal. They will most likely not like the HDR as well. in the end we only have to please ourselves with our work. (Unless we are paid, then we must please the client.)

 

[Ilovemycam]

Hell, most of my best shots would be trash without some or a lot of cropping...


This shot was nothing without the crop. The chiaroscuro treatment also helped make it. No crop = trashed shot for this one.

ArtSlant - Makes Me Grateful for My Bed




OK, this one required no crop. But it is a posed, take your time shot. I still crop posed shots sometimes. There always seems to be some stray thing I overlooked that gets in the photo. That is where being a studio photog comes in handy. But, me being a street photog and not a studio photog, I don't have the patience for studying comp for very long.

ArtSlant - Crazy




I would never show anyone the un-cropped image of this. It is just terrible and looks like trash. Much worse than the newest newbies garbage they post. But, with the proper crop...it is fantastic.

ArtSlant - The Strutters




Same as this shot. When in confined and crowded areas with lots of junk it is hard to get a good clean comp. Esp while maintaining the tall perspective of the pole. A crop perfects it best it can be. No crop and it is a snapshot only.

ArtSlant - Pole Dancer Ross County Ohio

 

[gsgary]

That is OK. We all have our likes and dislikes. HCB was the godfather of street work. Maybe you are a wizard as well as HCB, I don't know?

For me, I am on a much lower level. So, I crop 80% of my work or more. Not heavy crops, but yes sometimes heavy. If a crop has to be too much and the photo is bad quality from the crop, then it was not meant to be and trashed. That is my guideline for cropping...is it doable?

Ruining a photo due to dogmatic ego based determination is against my religion. I put image first, ego last. I try to be flexible. If people don't like my work becasue of cropping, no big deal. They will most likely not like the HDR as well. in the end we only have to please ourselves with our work. (Unless we are paid, then we must please the client.)

Using a rangefinder helps no end shooting on the street because you see more than just the frame