Just saw Kort's wonderful image for the social issue challenge, and a comment he made in his notation brings me to this. How do you choose the best way to crop an image to get the most out of what mood or whatever you are trying to get out of the image? I've taken literally thousands and thousands of photgraphs and the hardest part for me has always been, to crop or not to crop. and how? I open the floor for discussion, as I feel I'm not the only one who has battled this dilema...

Thank gawd I hadn't misinterpreted what he meant - imagine if he wanted us to get together to mass-debate?!? I've got an amazing eye for cropping, exposure, visualisation and all the rest, so, please excuse me if I don't need to join in ;-) sticks nose in air and walks away wiggling ass (",)

is it just me or is it getting "snooty" in here? LOL!

I don't crop an image, unless I want to make it square, IMO it is just a waste of resolution, so I take more time on the compo instead. This is a far more efficient use of an image.

If you have that luxury and get that perfect compo, that is great, but I'm betting that the majority of photograhers all do a little cropping here and there, even if it is just a little off the top, or to remove and edge they didn't see in the viewfinder. I don't always, but will if I suddenly find a gem within an otherwise rough image. For me, I go by my gut as to what works. I can tell if there are elements I don't want in an image from the get go. But sometimes it is harder to make that slice. I have to rely on my ingrained design experient to tell me what works and what doesn't. The beauty of Photoshop is there is always an undo if you didn't work out.

Honestly I'm not sure if this would work. I mean for a simple photo what one person would crop and another would not ect. is such a peice by peice question it's hard to have a RULE of cropping discussion for everything I would think. Here take this picture as an example. What's the best way to highlight the difference in shapes. Long vs Round verticle vs horizontal. One thing is to crop off some of the left and the bottom of the photo but then the tea pot is cropped which bothers me also then the photo will violate the rule of thirds. Sigh there is just to much. However it would be fun to discuss this sort of stuff occasionally. For me that is what this forum is for. Bsteph

It is hard to say with this one, it is a very busy image. If it were me, I'd cut out much of it and leave what I have above. Otherwise, I'd reshoot with less clutter around the subject, or just zoom in closer. My2

TwoPynts, are you by some chance related to Michelle?!? You both seem to have the same views on 'vegetables in art' (",) (oh, sorry, fruit and vegetables, seeing as how the tomatoes are technically fruit)

Attached Link: http://www.susanchambers.com/learn/cropping.shtml

jack, it's a good question. i've steadily been working on my composition so i don't have crop, but i am no where close to being a good enough photographer that i don't need to crop. Action shots prove to be the most difficult for me in terms of compo. do you print a lot of your photos, Jack? If you're gonna be cropping your images, you might run into difficulties when it comes time to print them. here's a link to a very simple article that gives you a chart so you know how many pixels you need to have when printing at different sizes. and it also shows an example of a photo that was cropped. i don't have any links to any professional sites you can go to that address this topic. Perhaps someone else will have a bit more information.

OK. I thought I would wait before replying. But I waited so long it dropped to th enext page. Oh well. I didn't want to crop this tight because I would loose the other two 'cumbers. I did think about reshooting but then it was supposed to be a normal photo to some extent. And isn't his too close a crop? This is what I mean't something as simple as four cucumbers an orange slice a cherry and two tomatoes easilly has two if no three differing points of view. Bsteph