crop or no cropping

I crop when I compose the photograph.

I compose with the format in mind. If the square will look better I will shot 6x6. If rectangular will look better I will use 135. If I will need to made a very large print, I will recompose for 6x6.

Then when I am in the darkroom, I crop only if it is necessary. This rarely happens.

Oh yes rarely Little Johnnie who is not parented properly, has his fingers up both his nostriles so he can scratch his eyes from the inside. Little Johnnie will get cropped.

Steve

CBG said:

I'm not comfortable with helter skelter cropping after the fact. I want to have a sure sense of the intent of am imega as it is taken, but...

At the same time, I don't believe that each image opportunity is ideally framed within one or another arbitrary rectangle originating somewhere in photographic history. I want the ability to see my image as a little less tall than the frame or narrower or whatever. Each subject sets it's own ideal format. I believe in cropping to it.

C

Click to expand...

There's an excellent book by a photographer named George E. Todd, Elements of Black and White Photography: The Making of Twenty Images. (AMPHOTO BOOKS, Publisher) He discusses many aspects of composition and displaying work; he mounts most of his work in unconventional formats, dependent on the motif. He also discusses how he got complaints about displaying work "that looked like it was produced on a production line", when the formats were all similar.

His text ends with a quote:

"The enemy of photography is the convention, the fixed rules of 'how to do'. The salvation of photography comes from experiment..."
Laslo Moholy-Nagy, 1947

i don't know if i would say that i crop is because of a poorly composed image
or because of no forthought of how i wanted to make the print in the darkroom -
sometimes what i saw isn't the same as what i see, kind of like when
you get a paint chip from the hardware store and paint a room that beautiful shade of ( fill in the paint color )
but after the room is painted you wonder what you were thinking ..

thanks for all your thoughts,
and paul, thanks for that great maholy-nagy quote,
that guy is one of my heros!

john

I almost always crop when I use 4x5....this is not a ratio that normally appeals to me so I usually crop to square or something more elongated. In 35mm, I almost never crop. I recently got a 6x6 it will be interesting to see what I do with that I'm in the middle of a series on county fairs and I am trying to stick to the 35mm ratio just to provide some level of consistancy across the work. That would have never have occurred to me before I started the series.

I crop in camera for my own work and for paying work I crop the final product

I try to do all my cropping in the camera to the best that I can.

I think the word cropping is ill defined, it seems to be applied in two different ways; cropping in the camera is no different than using a zoom lens - the aspect ratio remains the same - a better word would be "framing" the shot. Cropping at the printing stage has a whole different meaning; its more about using the right side of our brain (the creative side), especially when we choose to change the aspect ratio of the print to improve the composition - something not possible with camera work. When we photograph, we also need to calculate things (left brain mode), therefore, we may not have all our creative ability working because of distractions.

Another distraction is bad weather and people, sometimes.

Paul

I almost never crop when shooting 6x6 but 35mm or 4x5 I will crop down to a square sometimes. I prefer square prints more than rectangular ones. But sometimes I will crop my 6x6 to be more rectangular if the image warrents it. It just depends, I don't have any hard and fast rules when it comes to cropping

I don't have any rules for cropping or not cropping. I try to avoid voices in my ear that tell me not to do things (not voices here, my own voices).

I do try to crop in camera largely because I don't like waste and it seems wasteful. But I do crop. When I'm working slowly indoors I hardly ever need to crop. When I'm working outdoors, and/or more swiftly there are other priorities - I prefer to work without a tripod, I am often accompanied by a nine-year-old and am sometimes short on time, I can't always reach the parts I see that I want to reach without compromise... I would never risk losing the spontaneity of some shots through the mantra to compose strictly in camera.

Then again, sometimes I simply see a better frame within the frame I had first seen. Though I am pleased when I manage the perfect frame - and don't have any waste - I don't regard it as a failure if it doesn't happen..

panastasia said:

His text ends with a quote:
"The enemy of photography is the convention, the fixed rules of 'how to do'. The salvation of photography comes from experiment..."
Laslo Moholy-Nagy, 1947

Click to expand...

Thanks for a good quotation. I guess I think the subject, and the photographer's vision and interpretation of that subject should trump a craftsmanship based "rule" that dictates the use of an aspect ratio a manufacturor decided. Physical quality and impeccable craftsmanship are wasted if the image doesn't work.

Notwithstanding all that, often the format fits the subject, and I don't crop when I don't see a need. I do like to use as much of the film as possible to get the best quality I can.

C