Composer or Cropper?

[Don Hoey]

I go along with Clive on this one. If the subject suits the full frame then fine, but otherwise I will happily crop. I remember a long discussion I had with Foxy and his crop to fixed aspect ratio's if he had to. Hours later and both sides of the argument remained valid so I think its down to personal style/preference.

I guess Jim and I would have the same argument as he is a non cropper and I respect that, but then I got one over on him by lending him a 6x6, so now he is having to learn to compose square with that, and rectangular with the D200 on the same shoot.
He is lucky I did not have a 6x4.5, 6x7, 6x8 and 6x9 to lend him as well or he really would have been in trouble.

Don

[petrochemist]

I generally try to compose in camera as much as possible, but I'm not adverse to cropping to improve the image afterwards (sometimes even going a bit far for my 6MP camera, to remove distractions etc.)

With action shots I've frequently found I don't leave enough cropping room, & get photos with the edges of the main subject just out of view, ruining the shot. Hopefully I'll learn to leave a bit more for subsequent cropping.

I generally prefer to keep the aspect ratio, it was chosen as a pleasing ratio to the eye after all, but I've had several images where this didn't work at all & I've changed the ratio drastically, going to 3:1 or more.

I sometimes think that every rule in photography needs to be broken for one image or another - The only exception being 'if you like it, it's good'.

[rinso]

For me the picture the camera produces is only an intermediate state. The final image is made with the computer. Although I try to get the compo correct in the viewfinder, I will make the final judgement on the big screen.
And being from the analogue era, I do not believe in fixed dimensions for my photos.

[andy153]

I crop quite a lot. I always try to get the shot in the camera but invariably find that when I get it on screen cropping can improve my original image.

[Takahashi]

I think I'm in agreement with most on this subject; I compose as best I can while taking the shot, but sometimes a crop can make a shot "better", e.g. in creating a different perspective that you may not have picked-up on at the time. I most definitely do not deliberately just snap away at things with the comforting thought that I can crop extraneous details later. To me, framing a shot is a sizeable percentage of the whole.

[J A Mortram]

Haha Don! You are SO right! I 99.9 percent of the time will never want to crop... all in frame.. if ever just a few mm from an edge to clean a line up. Using the Yashica is indeed a challenge but a joy! Thank you.

Hopefully, I think what helped me was 7 years at art school studying painting... much composition elements within that as you're faced with a blank space and have to fill it every time and the lessons and concepts I learned there for sure influenced my decisions when I look through the viewfinder

[nldunne]

I took the measurements from this web site
http://goldennumber.net/index.htm
and measured out my MAJOR LINES for my GRID - BASED on my PERIMETER LINES - on a sheet of GRAPH PAPER. That GRAPH PAPER I tooK to a PHOTO COPY SHOP and had THE GRID put on a sheet of CLEAR PLASTIC for OVERHEAD PROJECTERS. Here is the paper copy at 6 X 4 inches they gave me - when they did my PLASTIC SHEET - as a reference. I have to adjust my scanner to keep from losing lines from the GRAPH PAPER.

This GRID has helped me greatly with my compositions. When I do my composition - overlay the GRID on any image - move it to place a cross point on any point of interest. Note where you put it - and put the cross point on your image in the same approx place - moving the crop outline until it fits the outer outline of the GRID. When that is done, move the GRID a bit on an angle and you can check how ALL DIAGONAL LINES go to their VANISHING POINTS.

[GHK]

I find that a combination of both is necessary in the majority of cases.
Composing in the viewfinder I use the zoom and look at the left and right edges to find a position that includes the things that I want to appear in my final print but excludes as much unnecessary stuff as possible. I now look to see if there is unwanted stuff near the top or bottom edge.
If there is, I shoot and crop the unwanted stuff later in Photoshop.
If there isn't, I zoom out a bit to see if it reveals anything else that I want to include until I reveal unwanted material, then back in a bit to get rid of the surplus. This now includes unwanted stuff in the horizontal plane, but I shoot and crop it out later.
The important thing is that I get what I want but finish with as little waste as possible because I only have to crop in one direction.