Sometimes I think it pays to look really critically at a shot and ask yourself, honestly, is there too much in it? Does it REALLY convey the message or story you WANT it to convey or is it suffering significantly from  clutter and/or distraction? I know sometimes it can seem like butchering your art to crop a shot but there are occasions when it can pay off. Crops can be square, rectangular (portrait or landscape); whatever you want really. The key objective of cropping a shot should be to lay emphasis on what YOU found interesting; YOUR reason for taking the photo in the first place. It can also, of course, be used to get rid of distractions; bits of the picture that pull your eye away from the main reason for the pic in the first place! In my two examples, I found the white lion on the knight’s tabbard was pulling my eye away and down from the head and facial features – my key point of interest. So I cropped to retain the face and helmet and remove the lion. Of course the decision as to whether or not to crop is yours and yours alone. But ask yourself objectively, can it improve the presentation?

 

Knight with lion

Knight without lion!

 

 

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