Creative Crops for Photographers

Creative crops can take a photo from a snapshot to a well thought out composition – even after the photo has been taken (though it’s better to do it in-camera when possible).

What Will I Learn in this Guide?

What is a Creative Crop?
How Do They Compare to Regular Crops?
Cropping In-Camera v In-Editing
Half and Quarter Crops
Minimalist Crops

What is a Creative Crop?

Creative crops are done for stylistic and dramatic effect. They are a more advanced approach to framing a subject and telling a story.

They can be applied to most genres of photography but there are specific areas – portraits, florals and still life – where we’ve seen them work best.

Creative crops make the framing of a subject more apparent. It isn’t simply a boundary of a RAW image. Instead, it is an active choice to home in one particular area of the subject.

How Do They Compare to Regular Crops?

Here are two examples of a regular crop against a creative crop with the same subject.

In this comparison, you can see how much more dramatic a creative crop can be.

The aspect ratio may not be ‘industry-standard’ but instead, the crop does the best for the story of the image first and foremost.

In-Camera v In-Editing

It is always better to frame your photo as best as you can in-camera. Even if you know your final creative crop is going to be square (1:1 ratio), but you’re shooting in-camera as a rectangle (3:2), then aim to get the crop as close as possible.

The reason for this is resolution. The more you have to crop after you’ve taken the picture then the more pixels you’ll be cutting out.

The more pixels you cut out the lower the resolution of the final shot (if it’s to be printed or displayed large). You should aim to keep as many pixels available – and composing your shot in-camera as closely as possible will do that.

Finally, the other useful tip to bear in mind with creative cropping is to always apply your crop when editing, first. Spending ages tweaking colours, removing blemishes etc on areas that you end up cropping out. It’s just a waste of your time – so crop first.

Half and Quarter Crops

When it comes to portraits and floral photography half and quarter crops can look great. Imagine faces and flowers being a similar shape – round – use this construction to only feature one portion of the subject.

With flowers, they are just a pattern. Why not try featuring part of it still tells the story and gives context, but with portraits it’s different.

Half or quarter crops on a portrait has to be more considered on what you are featuring, and why. Maybe it’s a really interesting face tattoo, lip piercing, eye colour or birthmark – either way, make it interesting and personal where possible.

Minimalist Approaches

You’ve probably read lots about negative space if you’re a member of our iPhotography Course – and rightly so. It’s an important compositional factor in making subjects look dynamic. Minimalist crops take this to the extreme.

Compressing your subject or scene to the very corner of your photo makes it looks diminutive and overwhelmed, so consider beforehand if that’s the right story to tell in your situation.

Use the sky as the vast space above to dwarf your subject matter. In your creative crop, imagine a lone tree in a barren landscape surrounded by a mammoth sky. Or consider a lone figure stood on a bridge totally alone.

Summary

Have you ever considered looking past the regular idea of cropping, to balance a composition, and instead tried to tell a story through framing alone?

Let us know if this guide has inspired you to try creative cropping we’d love to see in the iPhotography gallery what you can capture.

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iPhotography Course not only teaches you all the standard technical expertise, settings, skills, and special effects with your camera – but we also show you how to use these skills to develop your own individual style as a photographer.