Photo Cropping
What is photo cropping - why would you do it?
Sometimes, despite our best efforts, we don't compose a photo as well as we might like. It can be very difficult to get it right using a tiny viewfinder.
Cropping is making a new frame over your existing image, making the image sightly smaller, but allowing you to adjust the angle and remove unwanted parts of the image.
Here's an example of a photo taken without due care and consideration. Back to the waterfall!
Well that's lovely, but notice the girl at the top left corner and say I want to sell this photo online. I'd need a model release for the girl signed by a parent, and even then she doesn't really fit in the photo.
So sorry, girl, you have to go. I'm going to crop you out.
I select the region I want to keep in Photoshop (or whatever software you use). When I complete the crop, the selected area will become the new photo.
I could crop more closely to the waterfall, but my main aim here is to remove the girl from the top, so this will do nicely.
The resulting photo is devoid of children!
Much better. Cropping has many other uses, such as straightening horizons, removing large areas of unwanted space or isolating single objects.