Armadillo Loc: Ventura, CA

Ernie,

I think you and some others in this thread may be overlooking one important aspect if the finished photograph. Presuming you are using a modern digital camera, and that camera captures a chip ration of 3:2.
1. Will that ratio fit a 3 x 2 inch card? A 4 x 6 inch paper print? 5 x 7 inch print? 8 x 10 inch print? 8 x 12 inch?
The above are all common photo printing papers; except the 3 x 2 inch business card.
2. Even if you only shot 35mm film transparency slides you had the option of applying cropping stickers to the film chop and frame.
3. If you crop tight in camera you throw away the potential of correcting for minor mistakes made at the instant of pressing the shutter.

Michael G

CatMarley Loc: North Carolina

It also a rationalization to accept a limitation as a virtue. Film limited one to finalization with one shutter release. Digital has freed the photographer to a cost free rapid succession of views of the same subject, and the freedom to use each frame in a variety of ways. Who has never had the experience of finding something unexpected when viewing a day's shooting? Now we are free to take advantage of the unforseen.

HallowedHill Loc: Chattanooga, TN

chasgroh Loc: Buena Park, CA

...rare for me to end up OOC and happy, at least when shooting artsy stuff. Sometimes I will see something that I didn't when I shot the image, so I'll crop and grease it this way and that, and come up with something completely different than the "original." It's like mining for gold and a huge *fun* part for me.

GENorkus Loc: Washington Twp, Michigan

Like so many others, I too crop in camera. I really wish I didn't and have to make an effort to leave cropping room for the "other guy". Just a little bit is all I need.

The times I have lost a sale because it just because they want an 8x10 and I've already cropped it to an 8x12, (my camera is 2:3), is countless.

Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

Exactly!

There simply is no reason to rigidly hold to techniques learned years ago with a different medium. Especially when the technique limits were not necessarily valid even then! For example shooting slide film did not require using the image exactly as shot. It did if and only if taking the film to the corner drugstore was the limit to the photographer's processing... But for many that was the start, and cropped duplicates, possibly with significant processing of other kinds including Unsharp Mask and other complex techniques, were pretty normal for a great deal of commercial photography.

Any comment that starts with "my teacher..." (or mentor or instructor or worst of all some "pro") and is associated with any time interval extending farther back than last week generates only one thought: Have you learned nothing on your own since then? That is particularly bad when it suggests nothing learned at all in 30 to 50 years!

SusanFromVermont Loc: Southwest corner of Vermont

OddJobber Loc: Portland, OR

Loose cropping compensates for my lack of compositional skill. SO GET OVER IT!

cambriaman Loc: Central CA Coast

I was starting out when slide film was ISO 10 and the product was a positive film slide which was expensive to make prints from. Not having appreciable assets to order prints I learned to create in my viewfinder exactly the image I envisioned as final. It has been very hard to get over that approach and I still finding myself composing the final image before taking the shot. This is even knowing that with my 39Mpixel camera that I can throw away lots of pixels and still have a printable image. C'est la vie!

SusanFromVermont Loc: Southwest corner of Vermont

Love your example of the consequences of cropping too tight!!!

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

You need a composition mask in your viewfinder. Go to:

http://viewfindermasks.com

Almost all mass portrait companies use something like this in their cameras.

GENorkus Loc: Washington Twp, Michigan

We all know the real reason for that shot!

You did that so ghosting wouldn't be a problem as it flew off into the sunset!

selmslie Loc: Fernandina Beach, FL, USA

There is no single answer. "Exactly" just means that you have a viewpoint that is no more valid than mine or anyone else's. Shoot now and crop later sounds like someone who never learned to compose in the viewfinder.

Shooting with a different medium is not the issue either. Shooting with a different format is more to the point. After all, 3x2 is not the best crop, it's just the most common and it's often not the final aspect ratio you might want. You can learn to compose accordingly. Besides, 3x2 (like all but the square format) is two formats - landscape or portrait.

The many available formats lead naturally to different crop and display choices. You can start from square, 6x7, 3x4, 4x5, 24x65 or whatever is appropriate to the subject.

Cropping also reduces the overall resolution and depth of field. If you crop from full frame to APSC, you not only lose more than half of your resolution, you also need to use the APSC format to calculate your DOF.

And no, the corner drugstore did not develop my Kodachrome or other transparency film - 35 mm, 120 or large format. They went to Kodak or a professional lab.

revhen Loc: By the beautiful Hudson

I crop most of my shots. I guess it's because I have more time in post processing than in taking the shot, particularly when traveling. Then I can also clone out stuff that messes the shot up, sharpen it up, etc.

photoman022 Loc: Manchester CT USA

I keep trying to remind myself to leave space in order to make any corrections I need.