Cropping

I posted a photo in the gallery this morning and mentioned my love of the DFA 21mm f2.4 Limited because of how much cropping can be done - here is the original and the cropped version of the photo, my preference is for the cropped one (hence the post to the gallery) but the real point is that using high quality lenses on the full frame sensor of the K1 really does add an extra layer of possibility to photography...

1. Original



2. Cropped



Heavy cropping is quite common on certain subjects (aircraft, birds, wildlife, etc.) but for me changing format (portrait to landscape and vice versa) can transform an image into something I may not have envisaged at the time of shooting.

Anyone else doing this as a matter of course or are most better at seeing the shot they wanted from the outset?

I prefer to get the image I want in-camera, coming from a film SLR background which began nearly 60 years ago. I even still use colored filters for monochrome photography (I own 12 of them, which can be used on either of my most-used lenses). However, there are still times when I use Photoshop for what I consider relatively minor changes to an image, such as cropping. Even back in the day, when I developed and printed Tri-X and Plus-X film, I took advantage of the darkroom. I would alter the brightness and contrast of prints, crop, and dodge, to get the prints I wanted.

Anyone else doing this as a matter of course or are most better at seeing the shot they wanted from the outset?
Well....
"I think this mostly comes down to personal preferences combined with subject matter " to quote your kind self. but seriously I also am from the film days and so try to get it right first time but see nothing wrong in cropping, another luxury of digital.

I like this Lenny and prefer the Crop here ,I crop sometimes to get what looks best to me in my landscape photos as far as Birds etc I always crop 🙂
I do like that lens Paul

For me, getting it right in camera is a luxury that is possible only when there is plenty of time available - which there usually isn't. Tripod, get the framing right, wait for the clouds to shift a bit... those were the days! But circumstances have changed. Now it's usually a matter of getting it as close as reasonably possible in camera but allowing space to crop later. And taking several versions and choosing the best later. Macro, though, is a different matter entirely, particularly if doing a focus stack. Cropping just means wasted pixels when the idea is to get as much detail as possible. I will, however, crop to square or another format simply because the sensor I have to use is 3:2.

Steve

The start of an interesting thread. I'll be interested in where it goes. I agree with LennyBloke about the K1 and the 21mm lens. My favourite combo.

For me there is normally plenty of time available. Old water-powered mills don't move, and aren't going anywhere. Nowadays photographing mills in a new area is generally a 2-3 day affair. First I have to visit each mill, and photograph it from a few angles to determine the ideal composition. Sometimes that requires using a long lens to get my preferred view. When that is done for all of the mills which I am visiting I need to determine which view to use. Because that view is not always optimally lit, I use the compass bearing in my camera's GPS and a computer utility to determine a window of optimum sunlight for each mill. I can then go back and get the final photo of each mill. I am still re-photographing mills which I first visited before I bought the Pentax O-GPS2. For those I use Google satellite view to determine the bearing of a photo close enough to use the utility.

As much of my photography is undertaken while under the supervision of a large German Shepherd I too find that time is a luxury. Agree with others on here that most of my bird / wildlife photography does involve cropping. I still try with less nimble subjects to get the composition right in camera (or as near as possible to reduce cropping).

And my lack of time is mainly due to a large Lurcher .

Steve

It seems we all mostly try to get it right at the time of shooting - but with with the larger MP sensors in particular we really do get a second chance to create a good image if the first doesn't look quite right. The first time this really hit me was on a trip to Venice - the city is such a photographers playground that there are so many views to create good images from, with many of the building shots I found I could use the GR to just snap and then make the final image after viewing the results back at home on the bigger screen.