When it comes to knowing where to crop a photo, it’s really important to know where exactly you can and can’t crop a photo when you have someone in the photo.
This was one of the first lessons taught to me when I was asking other photographers for help on taking a photo. This seemed to be very important to the person who gave me this advice which I have tried to implement into each of my photos.
The main rule I was given was to make sure not to frame the photo on a joint such as elbows, wrists, knees, or ankle, a clever way of remembering it is if it bends don’t crop it. You can crop across the joint just not through it, but make sure you leave enough joint showing to show it is still connecting to the same limb and not look like it’s a phantom body part.
Another piece of advice is to make sure you crop as much as you need in-camera and not post while editing, as you want to retain as much detail in the photo. Don’t be afraid to take different distances of the same photo so that if you aren’t happy with the framing in one photo you can use a different distance and crop in a little to retain that level of detail.
One last piece of advice from me, when cropping in either in-camera or editing, make sure you crop in what you want the viewer to see. If there is a background object you think will be distracting and if it can be cropped out, then do so. You want to crop as much of what you want the viewer to see. If for some reason you see the costume is falling apart but no one noticed on the day, but it can be cropped out, then do so, as the viewer won’t know what it can’t see.
This post I found by Focused Camera explains how best to crop a person in a photo.
Disclaimer: All images and videos used, do not belong to FnC and belong to their respective owners.
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