People seem to forget that cropping can be done in the traditional dark room too! It's not some new fangled thing born in the digital age. Yes, it's always important to take the time to set up your shot, be aware of details, look for those distractions that may be there. But cropping is an option that is available to help make a great shot even better, if need be, or just an artistic choice to take the composition further than previsulalized. The problem with cropping to make something look like a macro has already been mentioned. It does have a tendency to look grainy and soft, and this is true for both film and digital, the bigger you make it, from the original the softer and grainier it will be.... simply put, not good IMHO. It's always better to have the proper tools, ie. macro lens, close-up filters etc. But lets realize that not everyone has the means to go out and blow wads of dough on expensive equipment, and photography is not a cheap hobby. It's easy to take offense when someone suggests as a compliment "nice cropping" or "great postwork"... especially if you take the time and work really hard to get perfect in camera shots, and you didn't do cropping or postwork. They just assume that you did.... because it seems that that is what everyone does in this digital age.... You could always make a little disclaimer in your description area?

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