Plan for the Crop
Your pictures are perfect. The smartphone camera that you have in your cross-body bag has more photography technology than that point-and-shoot that we saved and saved for. That waterproof camera we dreamt of for our vacation circa 2004... forgetta 'bout it!
The pictures in your smartphone album; the point-and-shoot, grab-and-snap, please-don't-move photographs. They're all perfect. With that, I'm going to share a few photo tips and tricks that might help the next time you find yourself planning the perfect photo op.
Tip number one: Plan for the Crop
1. Did you know that most full frame pictures are set to be 8 x 12? Most cameras will likely have a setting to adjust that, but that means that the sweeping light and leading lines of that lovely picture will need to be cropped by two inches before you can frame it or post it. How does it look with a bit cut off from the right? Maybe the left? Shucks! Now you find yourself searching for custom frames and matting and it's just not what you intended. When you're taking that landscape photo, plan for the crop.
2. If you are planning on creating the square insta-photo (if it's not too 2019), then plan for the crop, Something's gotta go. A little from the top? Or that shoulder off the right? What you don't want is to have to decide whose gonna be cut off from the group, or which puppy in the litter doesn't make the cut. Plan for the crop.
The top picture draws your eyes up to the dark, lapis-blue, night sky. The cropped, square photo on the bottom takes most off the top and draws your eyes to the center glow of the enticing entrance and enhances the Restaurant signs. There's no right or wrong. But a moment of forethought allows you to capture your intention without zooming in at the expense of the emotion you're trying to capture.
We'll talk more about gridlines in an upcoming post. These can help you plan for the crop and also create more effects. For now, when you grab that camera in haste to capture a moment, an emotion, joy or hilarity.. .plan for the crop.
