Hey guys, this is Janine from Pangolin Photo Safaris, and today I'll be talking
to you about how to best crop an image.
First, I'll be talking about formats and aspect ratios, as well as the
recommended pixel count for print.
Secondly, I'll be going through some basic cropping rules and how to break them.
And last I'll be explaining some tips and tricks on how cropping
can help you salvage an image that might have gone wrong.
I hope you will enjoy this, so let's jump right in.
Unlike the technical side of photography cropping is a tool
that affects the creative aspect of photography and is therefore a
very personal choice and subjective.
However, anyone is entitled to their own taste and ideas.
Please share them with me just down below.
Number one, aspect ratios and pixel accounts.
While the cropping tool in any software seems very straightforward
and easy to do, cropping is often not quite as intuitive as one thinks.
During Pangolin's Wildlife Photography regular Lightroom workshops and editing
sessions with guests, I often find that cropping takes place rather uncoordinated,
meaning that photographers often choose a seemingly random aspect ratio that
best fits the subject in the frame.
The result is that each and every image is differently sized and
images don't get displayed in their full potential, whenever they're
presented...As the aspect ratio usually doesn't fit the medium anymore.
My personal OCD, doesn't allow me to have a portfolio of
images with different formats.
It quite frankly drives me mad.
However, there's good reasons to choose a variety of different
aspect ratios for your images.
My suggestion is to keep them in their original format until you know
what you want to do with the image.
Do you want to print a three piece wall art?
Choose a Panorama for your welcome screen on your homepage, make a social media
post or create a slideshow on your TV.
Each undertaking requires you to choose a different aspect ratio...and
not every aspect ratio suites every photograph or subject matter.
So not just do you need to know which aspect ratio is required, but also find
the right image to suit your undertaking.
You might now think that I make this sound way more complicated than what
it should be, but let's have a look at it together and check out the three
most frequently used aspect ratios that differentiate from our original
camera format, which is a 2 X 3.
16 X 9 is what both a TV screen and a computer monitor use.
So if your intention is to create a slideshow for your TV, display an image
on an overhead projector at a camera club, build a screensaver on your computer
or insert images into a presentation.
16 X 9 is the best aspect ratio.
It is fairly similar to your original format and should fit
most horizontal or otherwise called landscape images very well.
It does look quite awkward vertically as it is simply too long.
And also doesn't add any value for the mentioned mediums in that regard.
Next, we have a 4 X 5, which is an aspect ratio that has increasingly gained in
popularity through social media posts.
All vertical social media posts on Instagram and Facebook are
displayed as a 4 X 5 aspect ratio.
Facebook does allow you to expand the image to the original 2 X 3,
but unless you click on the image, it is displayed as a random crop
that you have no control over.
Instagram does not provide you with a two by three option at all.
While horizontal can be displayed in the original 2 X 3 format, vertical images
tend to have better traction on social media, as they are visually larger on a
cell phone screen, which most people use to browse through Instagram for instance.
This was quite an adjustment for me.
And one I don't particularly enjoy, I must admit.
The reason is twofold.
Firstly, I often prefer horizontal or landscape images over vertical images.
It might have to do with the fact that we are very used to looking
at horizontal layouts in monitors.
Or maybe because our own peripheral vision is wider than what it is
high and therefore feels natural.
Secondly, I often find that the 4 X 5 format is simply too short.
It feels like the subject gets squashed into space and is lacking negative
space that draws the viewer in.
It is rare that I find the format really optimal.
Last I want to touch on the 1 X 1 aspect ratio, a format that
is particularly interesting for Instagram posts as your profile is
displayed in a tile format of squares.
If your images are cropped square, to start off with...your
Instagram timeline will look great.
However, I find that most images only look great in 1 X 1, when they display
a perfectly symmetrical subject.
Or, alternatively, a subject that is at least photographed head-on.
It can be a format that looks great as a print of three for your home, but it
remains to be a very specific aspect ratio that is only suitable in a few instances.
To sum this up, I always would suggest to keep the aspect ratio 2
X 3, as it is the most versatile.
Or, 16 X 9, if you know, you'll be displaying your images,
mostly on horizontal screens.
Any other crop can be applied once you actually know what you would
like to do with the image and then find a suitable image to fit
the aspect ratio that is needed.
For these reasons, or maybe because I'm simply OCD, I always keep my lock
on the cropping tool to avoid, ending up with an undefined format that
doesn't fit any medium or purpose.
I really hope this video helps you.
And if you do like it, don't forget to subscribe to our channel and
press the like button down below.
Stay tuned.
If you want to learn more about how to best crop a wildlife picture.
But before we get into cropping, let's first have a quick
look at our pixel account.
I have been shooting a camera with 20.2 megapixels for the past few years,
which is displayed right here when multiplying the short and long edge of
the image to get the total pixel count.
When you crop your image, you physically take pixels away and
therefore your size will change.
How much can we crop an image to retain a suitable quality?
Well, that depends on how large you would like your image displayed and
how many pixels you start off with.
Here is a rough rule of thumb.
An A4 print, or 16 inch computer screen, will require a pixel
count of about 8.5 megapixels.
An A3 print will require a pixel count of 15 megapixels.
An A1 to A0 print, or let's say a 40 inch TV screen requires a pixel
account of nearly 70 megapixels.
That is when we talk about an outstanding image quality.
Very often prints are quite forgiving though, as we don't tend to stand
one centimeter away from them...and stare at every single detail, but
rather soak it up at a distance.
Also, we have amazing image software that increase our pixel
account in retrospective such as Photoshop or Topaz Labs Gigapixels.
Those tools can help you print a 20 megapixel image way larger than
one could have ever dreamed of.
That being said, you might have already noticed that we can crop an image with
45 megapixels for instance, way more liberally than an image with only 20.
Keep the following two things in mind: 1.
Larger megapixel cameras tend to display noise more quickly as your pixels are
smaller and cannot absorb light as good.
2.
Cropping might bring your image closer, but will not improve the effect of a
bokeh on your background, as you were not actually physically closer to your
subject, when you took the picture.
If you're mainly active on social media, those sizes are going to be completely
irrelevant to you, and you can crop an image much more drastically as
pictures are displayed rather small.
Making your image smaller, while keeping the same crop, is always an option
by resizing them...when you export.
Matter of fact, I would recommend doing so as social media platforms tend
to compress your image upon upload.
Programmes such as Adobe Lightroom, do a much better job and spit out a
better looking image when compressing.
Rather than leaving it up to Facebook, for instance.
2.
Cropping rules.
Now let's dive into how to crop images and how not to?
But who actually gets to decide on that?
Before we get started, I just wanted to touch on the difference between
cropping and composition of an image.
Cropping is the process of cutting away pixels and information of
an image in post production.
With the goal to make the subject seem larger, or gain a
better composition of the image.
While cropping can involve improving your image composition, the composition
can also be achieved by simply getting it right to start off with.
That being said, most cropping rules are therefore basic composition rules.
Leave more space into the direction the animal looks into.
Don't cut your animal around the ankles or knees.
If you want a close-up, make sure you cut it around the body.
This can sometimes be a bit of a tricky one and might require a few trials..and
some people say never crop halfway through an animal, but I think it can look funky.
I guess, just make sure that it doesn't look like you just
lost a body part by accident.
If something is distracting in the background, try and crop it out,
Make sure you get your horizons straight.
Try and provide more space into the direction that has the calmer environment.
So place the animal towards the top of the frame, if the foreground looks great.
And the other way around.
Do not crop too tight and leave space around the animal, if the
background is not distracting.
To provide the animal room to breathe and the imagination room to spin a story.
And if you do want to break the rules, do it so outrageously, that it feels
right again, because at the end it is your image to play with, and nobody can
tell you what to do, and what not to.
3.
How cropping can save your image.
Wildlife photography can be quite technical and it truly helps
if you know both your camera, and the wildlife behavior well.
But big parts of it remain to be luck...and a really quick
reaction time on your trigger.
Often when you do get surprised by a situation, our composition
and focus isn't ideal.
We're just glad that we caught it at all.
This is where cropping can save us.
For instance, you can crop vertical if you didn't provide your animal
with enough space to look into.
Nobody will know.
If animals are overlapping awkwardly in your picture,
crop the overlapping part out.
Or, if you happen to clip an animal unfortunate...Crop it even stronger to
make it look like it was intentional.
If the background or even light conditions are difficult, crop
it tight to focus on the part of the image that looked beautiful.
All in all, you see that cropping can be quite a science in itself.
Keeping a certain structure and aspect ratio helps you to make up your mind
and provide you with guidelines on how to crop the image in the first place.
Let me know if you have any other approach to it in the comments section
below...and how cropping works for you?
Until the next time.
Bye bye!