Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Creative Cropping

We had a beautiful but busy Spring Break for the MOST part.
Each time Brady saw the sun shining outside
he would ask to go play, or take him to the PARK...
Here are a couple of the pictures I snapped of him playing.
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I'm not sure how many of you have Photoshop CS3,
but really any editing program
can do basically the same type of thing.
THERE is NOTHING in the world that can
change a picture more than CROPPING.
Of all the tips I can give a mom, or anyone else
who is wanting to have better looking images...
CROPPING is by far and away
the thing that will make the biggest
difference in the WOW factor of your photos.
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Here are a few samples of the same image and what cropping can do.
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This is the original shot I took.
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Here it is cropped once.
The extra width gives the illusion
of the movement of the slide,
but it is a much tighter shot,
and you can see the expression on Brady's face.
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The final crop is just a focus of Brady's face.
Anytime you want to focus solely on a face or an expression
I recommend Black and White.
It removes all the places your eyes would naturally focus
and moves it to faces and expressions.
I also cropped this one even tighter than the first
and used a slight tilt to still create the movement to the slide.
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Here is another sample.
This is the original shot taken.
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This is the same picture cropped and tilted.
You should always use a slight tilt when
there is movement in a picture.
Like running, cars, or SLIDES.
It just seems to gives life to the pictures original intent.
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This is the final crop.
I again did it much tighter because I wanted
the focus to be on Brady and his face.
I also flipped it to BLACK and WHITE
to remove any distractions the eye might go to
other than his little face.
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May we all realize that behind a regular ole' shot
there is a WOW picture
underneath most every one we take.
It just needs a little cropping.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

You know I love any picture of little Brady, he is the cutest thing ever!! Love the pictures.
Mom

myletterstoemily said...

what an adorable little guy!

thanks for the photo lessons,
too.

it's amazing all the things you
can do with cropping, etc.

i just aim and shoot, and then
someone says, "mom, step
away from the camera!"

deb did it said...

thanks for a great TUT...and of course Brady is the BEST subject matter!

lori vliegen said...

i love getting great tips from someone like you who really knows their stuff!!! thanks for sharing this info.....and super pix of sweet little brady!! :))

TeriGigi/Girl Meets Paris said...

This gives me some great ideas for photographing my granddaughter and my new grandson... he's coming in June!!!

Brady is adorable!!!!

Oh, and I think your blog is so cute. I love how you call it "Connecting the Dots" and how you put all the dot pics of your family... genius!

Becky said...

Love that little face! So happy! What a doll! Fun. fun. fun....