Have you ever noticed when you watch movies and tv shows, when the camera gets in really close to the person of interest, they don’t show their entire head? The directors don’t want to waste space showing several inches of hair on top, they want the faces framed and often go mid-forehead to accentuate the emotion on the actors face. In other words, they chop off their heads (as my mom likes to say). I notice that ALL the time in movies, and now I’m almost watching to see if that rookie director will show the full head on a close up. Just to see if he/she hasn’t figured it out yet. Sometimes I wish I could turn off my photographer brain in movies.
I only recently figured it out, and its something that I still struggle with–the artistic crop. The great thing is…if you don’t get it when shooting, you can crop after the fact on the computer.
You have to really think creatively, sometimes use a tilt, go vertical instead of horizontal, zoom in to just a hand, or cut off part of a face. This engagement session was one I really loved. In this shot below, I loved the expression on the girls face, but the guy had his eyes closed funny. I couldn’t completely get rid of the image, so I thought I’d see how a crop would look cutting it below his eyes and I loved it even more!
It hones in on her lovely facial expression and shows that he is there, but the focus is her. Love her eyes.
Here is a crop I did of my son for a portrait in our home.
Brings the focus to his happy face. I moved down on his head, and made it a square. There is no right or wrong way to crop, but you can get a nice creative effect from cropping in unique ways.
A lot of photographers do what is called “the tilt.” Instead of taking a photograph with a right angle–squared to the person and parallel to the ground, tilt your camera just a bit to add more character to the image. You can tell there is a tilt more with a pull back image, where you can see a horizon or reference point. In this image below, you can tell there is a tilt because the edge of the bed is at an angle.
Adds a bit more interest than the bed being parallel to the edge of the image.
Another…see the barn is tilted…the horizon is at an angle in the field.
WARNING–if you are a photographer and do this, some people don’t like it. They don’t see the art in it, and get annoyed if something is tilted or chopped. You have to decide to either a) Don’t crop in camera, and keep an original file when you crop on computer or b) say this is your art and you think it looks best this way and won’t change. I haven’t come across it a lot, but some are just more traditional.
One more–the bald man’s crop. He does not want to see the top of his head. If you take a picture and can help it at all, crop in close so you/he won’t see the top of his head! I know from loving a bald man, they don’t want to see the lack of hair up there. Images cropped in close = makes them happy.
Now go crop creatively and link up so I can see!
P.S. Thanks for the comments last week! I was beginning to think I was losing you. It was fun to check out a bunch of your blogs and get to know those of you that I’m talking to each week:) I love making new friends.
P.S.S. If someone REALLY wants to make my day, they can make me something like THIS. SO stinkin’ cool, and they can even squeek!
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Melanie says
Whoa, crazy. The second people are some of my good friends from Texas!!
I love this tutorial. I think too often we get caught up in the "supposed to's" of photography. Art is art…and the creative crops are what make photos beautiful!
Great tips. Now I will have the confidence to do some creative cropping. Thanks for the tips.
Thanks for this tutorial Kristian! I love a up-close and personal image, but I have a hard time cropping down a good picture. Also my Mom was always big on "don't cut their heads off." So I want to go try it now…
Thanks for the great tips! I was just talking to my hubby today about cropping pics. I would love to be more artistic with my photography. Must do a mini photoshoot and practise soem of your tips.
I tend to be a lurker and not comment very uch, but I am making it my mission to tell people when I like their blogs! So here goes – I realy like your blog! And I can't imagine how anyone could think up something mean to say to you xx
I need to work on my creativity, so it was good for me, too!
Melani–I've known J&K for over 10 years, so happy to do their engagement pics.
Lee Ann, this isn't my blog–it's Amy's, I just do the photography posts on Thursdays. But I agree, don't know how people can be mean when she is SO nice!
AWESOME tips! Thank you for sharing your knowledge and creativity with us. You have given me some great things to work on. I always look forward to your photography posts. :)
Thanks for the great tips again! I love the lens animals I bet you could whip that up using a hair scrunchie and some felt. That would be a simple no sew way to do it! I like the way you tilt, I had a photographer that was way too tilt happy and the angles were too wonky for me.
Thanks Kristen! I am just a "mother photographer" without a SLR camera but love these tips. And I wouldn't have thought to "chop off heads" as my mother would call it also. :) It totally makes sense and my husband (losing his hair) will greatly appreciate it!! Thanks!!!
I love reading your posts. I'm no professional, but I love reading how to take better pictures….thanks!
Such good ideas! I keep forwarding your posts to my sis-in-law who is an aspiring photographer and she loves them! Thanks for all the inspiration and ideas.
Love it…but I just wanted to add that I think bald heads are sexy! ;)
Those camera animals are SO cute. Thanks for the tips.
Has anyone offered to make you one of those lens buddies? It looks easy enough to do. I'll make one for myself and show it to you. What do you want it to look like?
Thanks for the post. I am an avid follower of your blog and Amy's. I'm a tilter! Yeah, I've done something right! I find myself doing it quite a bit in my shots and am please with the results most of the time.
Thank you for these great tips! Love your blog!
We learned the artistic crop when I worked at a photography studio. I love doing closeups! I wanted to show you a photo that I took but not everyone really likes. I guess artistic differences.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b246/limellama05/bw.jpg
And I'm linking you to what my days feel like sometimes with toddlers. Thanks for the post showing how!
http://ihaveacoupon.blogspot.com/2010/07/wordless-wednesday-somedays-feel-like.html
GREAT post! Love the tips. And I love the crop of that couple picture – zoomed into the girl's face! Great shot!
I've got to say that I follow you here every week and your blog. You are an inspiration to me and I'm loving the topics that you cover! Thanks for keeping it all in layman terms making it all make sense! Keep up the good work!
I'm not a photographer in any sense of the word…but I will say that cropping is the only way I get pictures I truly like. Cropping saves amateurs!
I LOVE the artistic angles and cropping! You take such great photos! Thank you for sharing tips!
My husband tells me I often get in too close – that I crop off the top of the head. Glad to know I'm not the only one and that I'm not doing anything 'wrong'!
I just have a little point and click, but can still practice your tips while I'm dreaming of a fancy camera! thanks:-)
I've been a lurker here too, but these photography tips have helped me SO MUCH. I'm still nowhere close to needing an SLR, but just my casual snaps have improved dramatically. Thanks for sharing your know-how!
Thank you so much for sharing these tips! I actually blogged about you and these tips on my site. I shared my photos following your tips on the blog too!
Makes it so easy to take better pictures!
Thanks for posting about tilt… I love it… my sister HATES it! I think it can make some shots much more interesting! Since voting in the poll, I went from wanting a DSLR to owning a Nikon D90! WOO HOO!!! I'm in love with it and am going back through all of your posts. Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us!
So I have been following your tips on how to get a basic color pop. Thank you! I have come across something and was wondering if you could help. Some of the pictures I want to take the shine off of faces or skin. How do you do that??? I have been playing around with photoshop for a couple hrs. and haven't had much luck! Thanks a ton!!
Another great post. P.S. I just found these posts today through Lil Blue Boo.
Just found your blog and love it! Just getting into serious taking photos other than the snapshots and have learned so much. Thanks!