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Do you crop your photos?


I prefer to photograph artistic gems and leave the snapshots for others.
 
Pieter12 said:
What if you say a little prayer before tripping the shutter? To St. Veronica, of course.
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Interesting- I did not know that. Related to images.

If you really are having mixed feelings whether cropping is ok or not, a prayer to Thomas may be in order.

For reflective metering try St. John of the Cross (also for night photography). For incident try St. Mary or St. John. (for indecent metering, there is the early life of St. Augustine). For successful development, St Anthony. For Contax/Kiev issues/uses, try Saints Cyril and Methodius.

For ideal Ansel Adams' style landscape photography, there is St. Simeon.
 
WilmaD said:
Whether we think they be artistic gems we do not decide.
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Of course we do...we decide and take that decision deep within ourselves and celebrate it. That is one of the things we artists do. Others can only decide for themselves if the art is any good.
 
Vaughn said:
Of course we do...we decide and take that decision deep within ourselves and celebrate it. That is one of the things we artists do. Others can only decide for themselves if the art is any good.
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Everything is art, even these thoughtless words in this post. Nothing is not art?
If this is right why do some provoke in this thread and cause tension?
 
Please, do not consider your words thoughtless. I don't see a logical connection between the two...what do the reactions to the discussions here about photography have to do about what art is?
 
Is WilmaD some blocked users alter ego? Pretty attacking attitude for newcomer..
 
WilmaD said:
Everything is art, even these thoughtless words in this post. Nothing is not art?
If this is right why do some provoke in this thread and cause tension?
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Once you see the forum jokers pontificating it's always time to abandon the thread. Nothing good or intelligent will come from staying. If you take them seriously you will just be drawn into a meaningless, aggravating exchange of nonsense.
 
WilmaD said:
Whether we think they be artistic gems we do not decide.
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I have always reserved that honor for myself and it has never been successfully challenged. Besides I have only made one mistake in my life, that was when I thought that I might have made a mistake but it turned out that I had been correct all along.
 
DonW said:
Once you see the forum jokers pontificating it's always time to abandon the thread. Nothing good or intelligent will come from staying. If you take them seriously you will just be drawn into a meaningless, aggravating exchange of nonsense.
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Thank you for your help.
 
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WilmaD said:
I am attacking someone?

Thank you for your help.
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And welcome to PHOTRIO as one of our new forum jokers pontificating away! Delighted to have you, honestly!

A lot of words...
Here is an old image. Cropped only by the 4x5 negative carrier (16x20 silver gelatin print). I've cropped reality pretty tight already...managed to get a few waves in and a touch of sky, and even a place to rest one's butt awhile down in front.
 

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momus said:
Cropping your photo seems to be an old taboo that's left over from the pre-photography art world...
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Never heard of such taboo.

This is as if a painter's supplier only offers linen in a certain aspect ratio and the painter then has to wait for subject that to his mind just fits this aspect ratio.

Concerning photography: the taking aspect ratios are practically given, in contrast to a painter's linen. For 35mm film there practically is only one aspect ratio. I will not go further into how these photographic ratios came into existance. Nonetheless a photographer is free, already at taking to imagine a certain aspect ratio and to realise this at the printing stage.

I admit however that at slide projection this is difficult and thus rarely realized. And at cinematography a deviation in projection from the taking aspect ratio is practically inexistent.
 
AgX said:
Never heard of such taboo...
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Neither have I. Using cropping tools (Ls) on student work is a fun way to show them different ways to approach composition. Students were always encourage to look for what was unneeded in their images as well as what was.

Besides full-frame 2.25" sq, 4x5, 5x7, 8x10 and 11x14 images, I also make in-camera 4x10 and 5.5x14 images using modified darkslides. I also have a modified darkslide to make 11x11 inch images that I have used once or twice, but have not fallen in love with it yet. Format choices and modified darkslides are just cropping tools I use to make the negative.

I also print multiple full-frame negatives together. Image-makers have many tools in their tool chest. Each tool leaves it own mark while in the hand of the artist/craftperson. I choose the ones that best shape my vision.

Doggies...
pt/pd print
 

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AgX said:
I admit however that at slide projection this is difficult and thus rarely realized.
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GEPE 7013 slide mounts with metal mask (now discontinued) can interlock perpendicularly, making a perfect square window. I crop my slides with this quite regularly, but of course they had to be taken out of manufacturing

There were Soviet slide mounts for half-frame slides and I've seen something in-between too, If I recall correctly. EDIT: Probably a plastic 16mm mount or something - really tiny window.

 
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Yes, and there were 35mm mounts with special masks. But gone too.
Moreover, these all necessitate a dedicated and precise framing at taking.

For deciding on cropping after taking or for more freedom on aspect ratio and orientation slide copying on a dedicated bellows would be the remedy. Though rarely applied. Today we no longer got the respective duplicating films.
 


I shot slides for three decades and I did not like remounting slides in glass [I did not know about those two options] so I learned to crop in the lens rather than go through the pain of remounting slides.
 
Pieter12 said:
I bet Berenice Abbott didn't give a shit about not cropping.

View attachment 296095

Berenice Abbott, Echange Place, NY 1933.
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Some photographs need cropping. Unless one had a panorama camera, this one would have been cropped in the darkroom. I doubt that she had FauxTow$hop.
 
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