Cropping: 4 Tips for Better Photos
Some people believe that taking better photos requires better equipment or a photography degree in order to capture great moments. It’s untrue. With a few basics to keep in the back of your head before that final click of the shutter, you’ll be showing off to your family and friends. Soon they’ll look to you to be the "go-to-guy or gal" for any event. These tips are something I have learned over time, and still am learning to do correctly. And better yet, there are plenty of cheap and free tools out there to use if you cannot afford a program like Photoshop to do your editing.
Who and/or what is your subject?
Take a moment and glance through some of the photos you’ve taken. What were you trying to take a picture of? Does your eye immediately move to it, or are there a lot of distractions throughout your photo? A lot of photo suffer from composition problems, and you end up with a photo of someone overwhelmed by their surroundings.
Take a look at this example on the right. There is just too much space around the people. The photo is about ‘mom and son’, and not about them surrounded by a messy kitchen. If you have a similar photo on your computer, try viewing it in this way. Mentally mark up your photo and see how much space is being wasted relative to your subjects. Try to think back to when you took your school portraits as a kid. Was it 90% background and 10% you? Not at all. If you try to keep this in mind before you take the photo, you’ll save yourself a lot of time later and have more ‘keepers’. Let’s move onto the actual cropping and positioning.
Take a look at this example on the right. There is just too much space around the people. The photo is about ‘mom and son’, and not about them surrounded by a messy kitchen. If you have a similar photo on your computer, try viewing it in this way. Mentally mark up your photo and see how much space is being wasted relative to your subjects. Try to think back to when you took your school portraits as a kid. Was it 90% background and 10% you? Not at all. If you try to keep this in mind before you take the photo, you’ll save yourself a lot of time later and have more ‘keepers’. Let’s move onto the actual cropping and positioning.
“The Rule of Thirds”
If you’ve never heard of it, there is a general guideline for the composition of subjects in your photos, known as the “The Rule of Thirds” (Wikipedia definition). To sum up, take your photo and divide it into 9 equal parts, similar to a tic-tac-toe board. The four intersection points of the photo can be used to place the key features of your photo. This is supposedly more aesthetically pleasing to the eye (tension and all that), as opposed to always centering your subjects. Another application for the rule is that your horizons will fall along one of those horizontal gridlines instead of dead center.
In this example on the right, I am actually using Flickr’s free cropping tools to edit the photo from the first example. The tool actually has the grid lines included, and can guide you when editing your photo. You can also see that we are going to remove a lot of the extra space we viewed previously in order to ‘tighten’ the composition. I have also marked the points of intersection to make the grid a little more clear. Give Flickr a try if you have no other tools to play with.
In this example on the right, I am actually using 
Zoom & “Zoom”
We’ve used examples above where you’re trying to correct the composition problem after you’ve taken the photo. Obviously, the simplest solution is to do the cropping in your viewfinder or on your LCD screen as you setup your shot. Do not be afraid to get up-close and personal, and have your subjects fill the screen. This is especially handy at night, when your flash will hit the closest object in your path and the camera will focus on that instead of the people farther away.
I personally prefer to “zoom” with my feet and walk closer to the subject, though sometimes (1) you may not be able to get closer physically (due to obstructions), (2) you may lose the moment by the time you get there, or (3) the person or people you are photographing show signs of discomfort as you get closer. For these, your on-camera zoom is the best option.
There is no one perfect crop!
Remember, these examples and “The Rule of Thirds” are merely guidelines to help you take better photos. Every person will look at a photo and decide that it should have been done differently. Play around with your photos and see if you can come up with interesting versions. Use a photo taken horizontally (landscape) and crop it vertically (portrait). Use the points of intersection when setting up your grid and move different subjets to different parts of the photo. Get so close to your subjects that only capture their eyes, and leave a bit of mystery to the viewer as to whom they are looking. Don’t constrain yourself to the standard sizes like 4×6, 5×7, and just go with what feels right. Lastly, have some fun!
Get so close to your subjects that only capture their eyes, and leave a bit of mystery to the viewer as to whom they are looking. Don’t constrain yourself to the standard sizes like 4×6, 5×7, and just go with what feels right. Lastly, have some fun!BONUS TIP: Though I don’t like to get into megapixel wars, keep in mind that the more megapixels you have, the larger the image dimensions. This means that if you do have to rely on cropping your image after you’ve taken it, you’ll at least still have plenty of actual image leftover that will print well for you.