Master Photographer — blog — Ray Arias Photography

"I'm not taking a photograph, I'm making a photograph." - Ansel Adams

I want to talk about an important subject, which inspires disagreement...cropping photos.

"Wait, Sensei...what is cropping a photo?"

Cropping a photo means to cut out edges of the photo in order to improve the photo, or to improve the composition.

I want to say this right now...there is absolutely nothing wrong with cropping your photos.

“Why, Sensei?”

Because...THERE ARE NO RULES.

This is the main idea I try to impart here in my blog posts and in my conversations with other photographers…there are no rules.

It is your photo, your art…you can do absolutely anything you want... whenever you want...in any way you want.

(Let me be clear here, though...if a photographer crops a photo, or manipulates it in any way using Photoshop or some other method...but claims that he or she did not do so...then that photographer is being dishonest. There is nothing wrong with manipulating an image any way the photographer wants....but, she or he cannot lie about it. And this is especially of utmost importance with regards to documentary photography and photojournalism.)

So, to continue about cropping photos…

There is a well-known and popular YouTuber/photographer, Jared Polen, who has been around for years. His videos are very informative, and I have learned some things from him, and I do like him and his videos. But...he takes every opportunity to say that he never crops his photos. What he is basically saying is..."I'm so great, I don't need to crop." This is ridiculous.

Many great photographers crop, many legendary photographers crop, many famous photographers crop…photographers have always cropped, from the earliest beginnings of photography.

There is another popular YouTuber/photographer, Sean Tucker. I also like his videos very much. He posted a video on cropping, in which he explained that there is nothing wrong with cropping. And he explained that he does crop sometimes. Ok, so far, so good.

But, when he said that he cropped, he said it in an almost apologetic manner..."I crop just a little bit...to just tighten up the composition a little." (I'm paraphrasing him).

Why does he need to qualify the statement that he crops? Either it is ok to crop, or it is not ok…no matter how much. If you say that cropping is ok, but then you quickly say that you only crop occasionally, and only crop a little bit...why are you making excuses for it? Why do you feel compelled to make sure you say "only a little?"

Again, I like both of these people, and I like their videos and what they do. My issue here is with their comments on cropping. And I'm only using them as an example because they are popular and have big followings...there are many other photographers who claim they don't crop, as if that makes them special.

So, let me just clearly say it here…I crop whenever I want....as much or as little as I want. I do not hesitate for a moment.

If I think it will improve my image, I'm cropping it. Period.

It is very important to understand that there is absolutely nothing wrong with cropping your image. In fact, it is one of a photographer's key tools and techniques.

I will prove it to you in a moment. But, first, in case you forgot, remember...

THERE ARE NO RULES! ;-)

You do not need to take my word for it...here, below, is just a short list of famous, legendary photographers who are known to have cropped their images. I have also included some of their famous, cropped, images. This is just a tiny list I'm giving you...there are many, many more great photographers, past and present, who have done it, and who continue to do it.

"I would cut any inches off my frames in order to get a better picture.” - Walker Evans

“There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs.” - Ansel Adams

Here are some famous photographers who have cropped their photos:

Ansel Adams - considered by many to be the greatest landscape photographer ever.

Henri Cartier-Bresson - legendary pioneer of street photography.

Arnold Newman - famous master portrait photographer.

Elliott Erwitt - legendary street and documentary photographer.

Edward Weston - He has been called "one of the most innovative and influential American photographers"...and "one of the masters of 20th century photography." The first photographer to receive a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Alfred Eisenstaedt - Famous photographer for "LIFE" magazine.

Robert Frank - Legendary documentary photographer. Created the book "The Americans," one of the most influential photography books of the 20th century.

Dorothea Lange - Famous documentary photographer. Inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.

Walker Evans - legendary photographer. Many of his works are in the permanent collections of museums.

This list could go on and on.

And here are some famous photo examples for you, showing how the photographers cropped them:

Arnold Newman (1918-2006), legendary portrait photographer.

Elliott Erwitt (b. 1928), legendary documentary photographer.

Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004), legendary master and a pioneer of street photography.

Do you see?

Crop to your heart’s content. If it is good enough for legendary master photographers, it is good enough for everyone else, too.

One of the biggest mistakes you can make, especially in street and travel photography, is not taking enough photos of whatever scene or subject you are shooting. You need to take A LOT of photos.

If you only take one or two shots, you could easily not have the best photo you could have taken:

You may miss focus
The exposure may be incorrect for that one or two shots
You shook the camera, thus causing the image to be blurry
The scene improved, making for a much better photo...but, you didn't take the shot, because you "already took a couple."
The person you were shooting may have blinked, causing a bad shot
The person or persons suddenly gave an awesome expression or gesture, but you missed it, because you had already stopped shooting

"But wait, Sensei, great photographers don't need to take many photos, they are experts." That is not correct, Grasshopper.

Most, if not all, great and professional photographers take an unbelievable amount of photos of their scene or subject:

Steve McCurry, legendary photographer and National Geographic magazine contributor, would shoot hundreds of rolls of film on an assignment. National Geographic photographers would regularly shoot 300 to 600 rolls of film on each assignment. Each roll of film was 36 exposures...so, that equals 11,000 to 22,000 images shot, just to get the 5 - 20 photos that would be printed in the magazine.

I read a story about Sebastião Salgado, the great master, and my all-time favorite photographer. He had visited a village and taken photos. Later, a reporter spoke to one of the villagers and asked him what he thought of Sebastião. One of the villager's responses was "I was surprised by how many photos he took."

Garry Winogrand, considered by many to be the greatest street photographer ever...in addition to all of the photos he had shot and printed during his life, at the time of his death (at the age of 56) it was discovered that he also had 2,500 rolls of film which he had shot but never developed, 6,500 rolls of developed film that he never printed, and about 3,000 rolls for which he only made contact sheets. It is estimated to be over 300,000 pictures!

Garry Winogrand, Park Avenue, New York, 1959

Robert Frank, another legendary master, traveled around the United States taking photos for what would eventually be made into a book. The book was called, The Americans. It is considered one of the great photography achievements and it made him famous. The book contains only 83 photos…but he took over 25,000 pictures!

Robert Frank, Elevator, Miami Beach, 1955

Do you see?

In the film days, at least there was the excuse that film cost money, and getting the photos developed and printed also cost money...so, it was at least understandable to try to take as few photos as possible.

But, now, with digital cameras, the cost of a photo is ZERO. You can take the photo, process it with an app, and share it online...at no cost. There is absolutely no excuse now to not take many pictures in order to make sure you get the big winner.

Just shoot and shoot and shoot. Later, look through your photos and simply keep the best ones. Deleting the bad photos costs you nothing...and no one will ever see the bad photos.

If another photographer thinks he or she is special and tells you "I don't need to take many shots to get what I want"...just remind yourself of the truly special photographers: McCurry, Salgado, Winogrand and Frank (and many other legends…too many for me to list here). Taking many shots was no problem for them…in fact, they did it on purpose.

So, never, ever, hesitate to take "too many"...or, feel that you are less of a photographer for doing so. There is no such thing. In fact, try to take too many, in order that you become accustomed to it.

It is infinitely better to go crazy and shoot hundreds of photos of a scene...and come away with one great image, and delete the rest...than to only take a few shots and know that you made a mistake and missed getting that awesome photo. No one is going to look at your mediocre photos and say "At least you didn't take too many."

People will remember you only for the great shots, and they will never think, for even a second, about how many shots you took to get them.

On a similar note…

If you come upon a scene, and you are not sure whether the scene is worth photographing...JUST SHOOT! You have lost nothing if you do not end up with a great photo.

But...if you realize later that you missed a great opportunity...that is a disaster. THE SCENE WILL NEVER BE REPEATED...YOU MISSED IT...FOREVER.

Wayne Gretzky, the legendary hockey player and goal scorer, said he never hesitated to just take a shot, because... "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take."

Just do it.

Crop Those Photos, Baby!

Take Many Pictures!

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