Cropping, how much do you?

[ruley74]

Curious on the amount of cropping most amateurs do, particularly with birds or smaller subjects. I know the general idea is to find a way to get closer but unless you're in an environment or situation that's possible or reasonable it's not always possible. I know things like are you going to print it and how big are you displaying it will come into play

So if we use pixel dimensions what's your threshold? 2000 long side... 3000 etc?

Here's one today of a Eastern Curlew, he/she simply didn't want a bar of people. This is 2500 long side and generally a little below what I normally prefer as my minimum. I would never print this but I still want to keep it as a record and social media as it's the first one I've photographed.

You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.

 

[Callie]

Dean ~ nice curlew, he allowed you quite near!
Cropping ~ a difficult subject. RAW opens 300 dpi to sensor size pixels. So 300 pixels is an inch or 25 mm.
I do all my work and crop to what ratio I want. I convert pixels to inches, mostly because prints are x X y inches and not A4, A3 etc.
PS has a function where you can crop to a ratio you enter, at the dpi you enter. I often crop larger than my sensor pixels. Say the D3S made a 12" @300 image, I will crop it up to say 16" on the horizontal. I seldom crop to a standard size. Only after I have cropped, and am happy, I might bring the width to an inch standard size. This said, my Tiff, which is saved first, is normally not cropped. Then I save a large jpeg@ Abobe RGB - that is, if you want to print it. Then I reduce the RGB file size to suitable jpeg size. I use 1500 px width for landscape format and 900 px for portraits. If my landscape height is > than 900 px, I do not mind. I used to safe jpegs @ 96px but now I such keep it @ 300 px I have saved jpegs @ 4000 px, but those are panoramas. All jpegs for web is sRGB; For web, what jpeg is about IMO, any width from 800 - 2500 px is OK as far as I am concerned. Thus, I finish the crop without any concern for the actual size, and if I need it bigger, I use the ratio crop @300 dpi. Then, after the RGB large file, I choose the jpeg size in sRGB.
Trust this make sense.

 

[Rassie]

All my images posted here are cropped to 1200 pixels on the long side. Generally computer monitors display images at 72 ppi, so my crops are done to ensure the image is at least 72 ppi.

I have found that as soon as an image is cropped too much the image quality degrades and it doesn't look good any more on the monitor. That's when I know I've reached the cropping limit. So generally if I cannot display an image that looks good at 1200 pixels wide @ 72 ppi, the image is garbage for my post on these forums.

To print the same image I ensure it's cropped to at least 270 ppi and whatever size it allows for length and width at that pixel density.

 

[Steve]

Obviously, as little as possible

However, it really depends what my intended purpose for the image is. If I shot at a low ISO and have good separation, I might go down as low as 2000 on the long side and use it strictly for digital media. However, it has to be something really special.

OTOH, generally speaking, I like at LEAST 3600px on the long side. For a 2:3 aspect ratio, that gives me 12 x 18 print @ 200 PPI (200PPI looks great on my Canon inkjet) and that's typically the smallest I would ever consider printing. Still, it's smaller than I'd like and I only accept it for harder to get / rare images. Most of the time if I would have to crop that much I don't even bother to shoot it.

Cropping also depends on the overall quality of the file. Some files take software enlargement better than others (read: clean, sharp images). In fact, I've had times where I had to crop down to a 6MP image (2000x3000) uprez it, and I still ended up with a stunning, detailed 16 x 20 that both the client and I loved. So, it's not strictly about pixels - a lot of what you can do with a cropped image is also about the quality of those pixels.

Still, I do everything I can in the field to get as close as possible to the composition I want so cropping is minimal and I generally won't use an image of have to crop heavily if it's of a common subject - better to just try again IMO. However, if I do know I'm going to crop, I do everything I can to minimize the impact of it while I'm shooting. I talk about that extensively in this article if you want to take a peek.

 

[gordon_g]

What @Callie and @Steve said. That was easy! Phew... LOL

 

[Viathelens]

I seldom crop images but I do use the Transform tool a lot in LrC, only on the sharpest of images as upsizing will increase any noticeable blur. This same thing goes for the D500 or the Z7 ( a high megapixel camera), I prefer to get the sizing as close as possible when taking the shot. I will crop a bit to get something straight or to increase the size a little. I have been known to crop the image to 2800 across on the largest side, which is around an 8 x 10 image, but I would not print it at 8 x 10 so good for digital only for the most part. I generally print everything, not larger than a 13 x 19 sheet of paper for the most part, using a 300 ppi file so try to work within that range.

 

[ruley74]

Thank you all for your input and thoughts. I've not done the print DPI conversions so that's handy to know. Probably should have added above shot was with a D500 @500mm (750 FFE). I generally don't like doing less that 3000 long side but do go to 2400 of decent subjects (decent or me given time shooting). I really need to learn PS, that will be my next learning quest but i want to find a instructor lead course first to imbed the basics. A lot of the PS talk is great but i have know idea!

 

[gbodave]

I crop to whatever size it takes whilst retaining enough quality that I feel makes the photo worth keeping for different reasons. I take thousands of photos like most others here and only a small percentage will get to the print stage. If I have 60,000 images and I printed only 5% of them that would be 3000 prints - absolutely no way. Those I DO want to print have to be of the highest quality. The rest can fall short by different degrees but that doesn't mean I want to bin them.

Quite a few will go on web sites and the quality doesn't have to be the highest. Same goes for social media.

If I photograph something for the first time I'm prepared to put up with less than perfect just because I got the shot. Maybe another opportunity to do better will come along another time.

As a quick example, here's a screen print that shows that the photo was cropped a heck of a lot.

You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.

Here's how the cropped image turned out. Far from unusable.

You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.

 

[Callie]

I really need to learn PS, that will be my next learning quest but i want to find a instructor lead course first to imbed the basics. A lot of the PS talk is great but i have know idea!

Dean, leave your email on my profile if you want to and I can help you with video names to help you handle PD

 

[pochito]

It depends on the image.
Most times I crop for changing the aspect of the image, related with compositional considerations. Must not be 2x3 or 4x5 etc.
This may bring (usually does) the subject nearer (bigger) but this is a consequence and a secondary effect.

 

[Strodav]

Sometimes you just can't get close enough and take a shot and the subject is only in a small part of the frame. Otherwise it's good image. I've used Topaz Gigapixel AI with good results to increase the original image size, then process, including sharpening and cropping. Gigapixel allows you to to select a scale factor or resize to width and height, set PPI, apply noise reduction and remove blur.

 

[Anjin San]

As much as needed. Most of the time I shoot in landscape and crop to 16x10 cor consistency since my finished images go on the blog and also end up in the desktop picture folder on my MBP. I will use occasional portrait or other aspect ratios. How close I crop depends on how gar the subject was and size in the frame as well as how much background is needed...being careful to remember that too much really drops the IQ due to pixels in target. For example...the shots I got in 2019 of the classic grizzly wolf standoff over the dead bison in the Lamar Valley in Yellowstone...it was 500 or so yards from the road and the rangers didn’t let you walk closer...even with the 150-600 they were far out...so I settled for enough crop to tell what they were but not so much that sharpness went completely to hell.

 

[Ed Erkes]

Photographing wildlife is a challenge, but my ultimate goal is to capture a pleasing composition in nice light at a resolution that would allow mounting on the wall as a large print. With my 12 MP D2x and D300 cameras, I felt like I needed a 7-8 MP image to be successful. As the number of megapixels in cameras increased, so have my aspirations. With my D800 and D850 cameras, I now have a goal of 18MP. Of course it is a somewhat arbitrary # and I have not yet printed larger than 20" X 30' . But having a goal like this keeps me focused on improving my photographic technique-- from the use of blinds, camera traps and beam trippers, bird set-ups at feeders, to even just finding locations where animals are more used to people. I really enjoy just being outdoors, but having a creative goal adds to the enjoyment for me.

erkesphoto.com