Brisbane Camera Group

Thinking inside the square by Peter Hughson

Introduction:

Quote: I started thinking inside the square and I found myself boxed in!
Paradox: I had to think out side the square to enable me to think inside the square.

The reason for the paradox is that there are two different squares being talked about. The first square is to think outside the ‘normal’: look for some different angle and be creative in taking the picture. The second square is the ‘picture’ you now have: look for something else you can do with it instead of just accepting it how it is.

For the majority of photographers their camera produces a picture with the default side ratios of 3:2 or 6:4. Most photography shops cater well for this format and will print enlargements in keeping with this ratio i.e.6x4, 12x8, 18x12, 24x16, etc.

Now sometimes a shop will offer a slightly different size 7x5 or 10x8 and this requires some cropping of the original image. Often we are required to crop images purely because we have a frame which has the different size i.e. a 6x4 frame may in fact be a 5½ x 3½ inch. There are plenty of variations that we could use and most probably should use to enhance our images.

There are many times when an image is improved by creating a different shape; using non-standard ratios of the sides. This is what this talk aims to show: improving an image by cropping it. I have titled it ‘Thinking Inside the Square’: you have the original shape and you are asking yourself

• ‘What can I do in this square to enhance my image?’ or,

• ‘What can I do to this image to convey a different message?’

I am not talking about changing the colour, or adding special effects – I am talking about the simple task of deciding what to keep and what to cut out!

Simple Steps to Cropping

• Look at the elements in the image

o What do you have in the image: Tree, lake, sky, ground

• Decide what elements are important

o What were you interested in when you took the image?

o What message were you trying to convey?

• Crop the image to convey the message better

o Choose an appropriate shape

o Crop out the clutter and keep the important

Simple Shapes:

Consider the following shapes:

• Portrait (standard)

• Landscape (standard)

• Square

• Panorama (Horizontal)

• Panorama (Vertical)

• Other ratios.

• Circles

• Ovals

• Vignetting – not covered in this talk

• Montages – not covered in this talk

Cropping Options 1

• Use the Crop Tool

o Select a pre-set size or Custom setting

o Change the width and height and resolution e.g.

• 768px by 768px, 300 resolution (Square)

• 512px by 768px, 300 resolution (Portrait)

• 1024px by 384px

• No Restriction

Cropping Options 2

• Create a Matt Shape

o Create the shape on a layer

o Colour in the outside and delete the inside

o Put the image on another layer underneath

o Move the image within the shape to the desired position

o Flatten the image

Examples

In all examples, use the three steps: Look, Decide, Crop

1. Landscape to Square

Picture: Wedding Party outside the Church

The idea was to emphasize the Wedding Party and the church building but the image shows one of the guests on the left who we do not want. Then we get a lot of open space on the top right. So we can crop those out using a square.

Now square can be put into a square frame. One of the uses of ‘square’ is that it can be used for a CD/DVD cover. So if you taking pictures for such then consider your elements in a square. The same rule of thirds rules apply but of course can be broken if the situation arises.

Some pleasing aspects are use of diagonals or triangles within a square.

2. Landsape to Portrait to Square

• Picture: Wedding couple cutting the cake

The idea here was obviously to get an image of the cake cutting. A landscape full length was initially done. The image has an annoying curtain on the left, and people not even paying attention on the right, and some of a white beam on the top. So we can crop them out.

In addition, using a portrait format would have been better, but with flash on the side, you get an annoying side flash. So the idea was to bounce the flash off the ceiling, and then crop later. Portrait resulted.

The image was also cropped to square to be used as CD/DVD cover.

3. Landscape to panorama

• Picture: Sleek car with young couple lying parallel to the car

The picture shows sky above and grass below. Neither added anything to the picture so I decided to cut the sky and grass out and produce a panorama.

4. Portrait to Oval

• Picture: Three pictures of a young girl

I had three images taken within seconds of each other of a young flower girl. There were annoying parts of other people on the edges of the image which I didn’t want so the trick was to crop these out. I decided to show the pictures in one image. Oval was a popular ‘framing’ style in the past and can still be used. I created a ‘Matt board’ on a layer with three oval cutouts on it. On separate layers I placed the three girl pictures and moved them around under the matt board until they were lined up as I wanted. There is no square, but the principle is the same: think how you can best display the picture once taken.

Tips

• Printing a Cropped Image

o If you want to have the image printed make sure you RESIZE the file to the 2:3 ratio.

• Too much Cropping

o Don’t do too much cropping as you may end up with not enough information to print the picture very large

Conclusion

Try to get the picture right when you take it. But remember that if you can’t get as close as you want or the exact shape you want that there is always the cropping option

• Look

o An image can sometimes be enhanced by using a different shape

• Decide

o Ask yourself how you can improve the image and its message

• Crop

o Remove unnecessary elements and keep the good

Homework!

Take a few of your images and try:

• Framing the scene in several different ways.

• Using different shapes can get more out of a picture

• Cropping to get the following effects

Ask yourself what you can do with the image. Examples are:

• Screen saver (Computer or Phone), website, side of document, header of document, CD Cover, Table Mats (Circle), Background for another picture