Re: [Leica] Cropping and the whole damn thing [was: Digital cropping]

[Bill Satterfield <cwsat@istate.net>]

I was taught to crop with your viewfinder when you take the picture. Works in
all formats. Fill the viewfinder and cropping may or may not be needed. Most
snapshots are taken too far away. While at Notre Dame in Paris last month, there
was a snap shooter there taking a picture of her husband in front of the church.
She kept telling him to back up until he was at least 30 feet from her. This was
a P&S, no zoom camera too. I bet he was not even recognizable.

> Guy
>
> Thanks. I just spent time over the weekend in my darkroom. I printed 7
> different negatives. Spent at least an hour on each and several hours of
> time on a couple. They were all 35mm. I don't think that cropping improved a
> single image.
>
> I showed both full frame and  cropped images to a few people. Without
> exception they liked the full frame shots the best. Initially, I thought I
> had improved on a couple by cropping. But the feedback the people gave me
> was that the uncropped images looked more natural. I think one person said,
> "This one just looks more real." The images were taken during some
> festivities. The people that I showed the prints to, and that made the
> comments,  were people who were in the photographs.
>
> I think there are times when cropping can definately change the look of an
> image. Again, I'm not saying it's bad. But especially after my weekend of
> printing, I'm sold that full frame printing is a most desirable goal. Now
> every time I crop in Photoshop I'm going to be asking myself, "Is this
> really an improvement." I don't think I can make that decision in an
> instant. Maybe if I hang both (cropped and uncropped) side by side in plain
> sight for a month I'd have a better idea. Aside from that, I think I need to
> trust my initial instinct -- meaning what I saw in the viewfinder.
>
> Dave
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Guy Bennett [mailto:gbennett@lainet.com]
> Sent: Friday, June 01, 2001 3:02 PM
> To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> Subject: RE: [Leica] Cropping and the whole damn thing [was: Digital
> cropp ing]
>
> Dave,
>
> A good post!