How to take digital photos-Cropping

When we speak about cropping we have a farmers’ definition and a photographers’ definition. Both definitions would be correct in their own right. One might ask “corn” and the other may ask “how long you got” Because in the photography world a crop is the way in which the digital photo in question is framed. In other words the parts that were cut out and the parts that were left in to produce that final photo. There are a lot of people that leave too much in their digital photos, and at the same time a lot of people fail to include things in their shots that may have had a positive impact on the final finish. If you take anything from this make sure you also take in the fact that you are to use your crop to the fullest. The steps to follow when sharpening your cropping skills are quite simple. You as the professional that you are just decide in your own photographers eye what needs to be in your digital photo and what simply doesn’t add anything to your finished shot. Professional photographers use this very simple technique to help decide what should be left in a beautiful digital photo and what can go and I will share it with you here.

Take yourself a digital photo and then look at it. Take your hand or an object and cover part of the photo. Now look at your digital photo while still covered. Now the question is, does your imagination feel more comfortable with your digital photo without the missing section or with it? If you didn’t ‘miss’ anything while your photo was covered then it should be safe to crop that section out. Now lets take it to another level. You will need 2 ‘L’ shaped pieces of card. It could be from a cereal box, it doesn’t matter. Place them over your photo, with one of them being inverted. This makes a frame around your picture. Now what you do is slide them left to right and up and down and also rotate them allowing you to change the shape of your new frame. Please know that you are self- training your minds’ eye to view digital photos from different points of view. Brace yourself though you may be quite amazed at how dramatically your digital photo may improve by using this simple technique.