Creative Cropping - Mike Longhurst FRPS
The Ins and Outs of Creative Cropping Mike Longhurst FRPS Whenever I see a photo club judge start his spiel by waving a couple of L shaped cardboard cropping guides about, I have to smile to myself. They’re probably going to tell the rank beginners that they shouldn’t have odd dismembered limbs of people, trees, or animals, intruding into the scene. No halves of words on signs, odd lamps, or things that make you wonder what’s going on offstage. There should be nothing that implies that this scene is not an artificially segregated thing, independent of the rest of existence. And in many cases, of course, they’re right. Clutter and distractions are not just points-losers, they are also frowned upon in RPS distinctions and avoided by better photographers everywhere. The question “If it wasn’t there, would you want to put it there?” is a very relevant test of whether something is adding or subtracting from what you have shot. But for me, that’s not the whole story, nor even sometimes the most important part of it. Cropping can alter the whole meaning of the picture and elevate it out of the mundane, but I think how and why to crop often needs to be learned, in the same way as any other photo technique. That’s why I don’t advocate taking two big black or white Ls and placing them around the picture and sliding them in until all distractions are gone. What I have taught for the last 15 years or so is quite the opposite: ‘In-To-Out’ cropping. Forget what the picture shows, start with why you took it and what you most want the viewer to appreciate. You might say all of it, but be realistic, where do you want their eye to go to? What will give them the message at a glance? Yes, you might want them to take in a lot of detail, but you need to get their attention first. They need to know why they should bother. Now if, like me, you learned your photography in the slide film era and you either got the framing right in the viewfinder, or wasted the shot, just be thankful that today’s huge megapix counts give us endless opportunities to shoot a bit wider and sort it out later.
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