"Crop My Pictures and You're a Dead Man."

That's what I used to tell my book publishers (when I used to write books rather than producing apps – where I have total control over cropping).

Of course, I told the publishers in a much kinder and gentler manner. :-)

Basically, I suggested that the art directors not crop my pictures in any form or fashion - because a careful crop is important to the overall composition of the image.

The point of this post is to encourage you to carefully crop your images - as a careful crop can turn even a snapshot into a much more effective and dramatic photograph.

I took the pictures in this post on my Mt. Rainier workshop that I co-lead with Juan Pons last week.

Above:
I dramatically cropped my full-frame images into strongly vertical images. More than half the original images were cropped out. These are Canon 5D Mark II images.

Below:
I dramatically cropped my full-frame images into strongly horizontal images. More than two-thirds of the original images were cropped out. These are Canon 5D Mark II and Canon 7D images.

For all these images, I shot with the end result (a strong crop) in mind. So the tip here is crop as carefully as you can in camera, but always keep in mind how you will crop your image in Lightroom or Photoshop.

So crop to your heart's content.

If you want some personal advice on cropping, maybe a Tough Love portfolio review session may just what you need.

Explore the light,
Rick