Quick Cropping Tips and Techniques

by Nicole Humphrey | More from this Blogger

03 Apr 2006 01:20 PM

To Crop, or not to crop. This is often the big question. Creatively cropping or trimming a photograph, can help eliminate parts of a picture that you do not want.

With cropping your photo you can get rid of:

• big hips
• ugly wallpaper
• annoying neighbor kids
• distracting tourists
• a messy house
• ex-husbands
• camera straps and fingers
• other undesirable or unattractive objects

Cropping will go faster if you do a group of photographs together, rather than only one at a time. That isn't to say that you are supposed to stack the photos and cut them all at the same time. An example of cropping together would be cropping a group of photos from the same event, or that you plan to use on a layout together. Take several different events and get them cropped all at the same time.

Look at each photo and determine the focal point. You will need to decide if the background needs to be kept for atmosphere and to tell the story. Is the background or other objects in the photo too distracting? If so, crop.

When cropping photos use the quick cropping tools:

• Personal Trimmer
• Circle Cutters, Oval Cutters, Shapes
• Corner Rounders
• Scissors - for silhouette cuts only

It's better to crop photos "big" rather than crop too close and not have any room to crop down further on your layouts.

Silhouette cutting can be fun and easy too. Cut around the subject leaving only a thin margin all the way around. Up-close photos of people are perfect for silhouette cutting.

When using your circle cutter to crop a photo, don't limit yourself to whole circles. You can cut half circles as well as using an oval cutter to create different shapes.

When you are finished cropping the photos, it is best to store the photos that will be on a layout together. This is another great way to create your page kits and have everything ready to go.

Learn more about Nicole Humphrey

Nicole Humphrey is a freelance writer, consultant for CTMH and a Sr. Blogger for families.com. She resides in St. Charles, Missouri with Mike and their five children and two furbabies.

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