Cropping? How much do you cut out of your pictures?

[Spinning]

Granted with going digital I am able to crop out so much and still keep the original picture in tact.
But lately I have found myself cropping less. Granted my picture taking skills have improved and I don't need to crop as much. But I also feel if I crop out too much I am removing stuff that would be of interest down the road. You know furniture in your house, cars, signs etc....

If I do crop or have pictures I don't want to scrap or really keep I use my CM square maker and cut small squares of intersting things in the back ground. Then I make a mosaic page.

 

[pattyT]

It depends on the picture really -
like you my pictures are getting better so I don't have to crop as much -
and sometimes I want to leave the background there - cuz some of the 'stuff' may be funny too look at one day (the green stove behind me in my first birthday pictures for example!)
I have even done a layout where I cropped interesting parts out of the photos (example - I did a layout with Lauren where I matted out a 5x7 of the pic and then took then 10x13 and cropped out an ear, an eye, a foot, etc...)

 

[chessie]

I don't crop my photo's much anymore. I may cut off a bit of either end just to center something or to make the photo fit better, but I leave most of the photo in tact. Even those ugly curtains that I thought were so beautiful at the time are, in my opinion, an important part of my memories. I have some really awful layouts where I cropped the daylights out of my photos. I have one where I even cropped all the way around the people in the photo and pop dotted them. I do take photos of things for the purpose of cropping like carpet patterns or shells on the beach. Other then that I pretty much leave my photos as they are.

 

[piratesmate]

This was a problem for me when I was trying to lay out my first page at a CM crop/party. I took a set of pix from CRT that DH had taken. The consultant kept saying to choose one of the patterns (circle, diamond, etc) & "just cut!" When I finally got her to actually look at my pix she kind of said "Oh." DH has left very little background on any of them.

While this is a good thing for pix of the kids, it's annoying at the same time. There's not a single picture of the stained glass windows at CRT. There's no pix of the food on our plates. Even when I was looking at my pix in a regular photo album I missed seeing all of the "background" things.

We need to both take pix at every event to satisfy me. He takes great people shots & I take the backgrounds. However, that doesn't always work at WDW because I'm in the wheelchair. I'm either too far away, or someone walks right in front of me, or the angle is bizarre, or.... I'm just too picky!

 

[JulianneP]

I crop just enough so you can't see my fat thighs!!!!!!

 

[FantasticDisFamily]

It depends on the photo - some I leave essentially as they are and others I crop so that the element I want is featured.
Deb

 

[bananiem]

I think I've gotten better at filling the frame when I take a picture so there's less to crop. I also like to keep some of the background so I can see where we were. It's fun to look back and see what Grandma's and Grandpa's house looked like or whatever.

 

[OurDogCisco]

I've gotten much better at taking pictures over the years. I always take close-ups as well as far away pictures. I make sure there is something interesting in the picture tho. I also take pictures of things around the room. When we went on the Disney cruise I took a picture of every sign on the ship and the room decor and cropped those for my album. Like the number of our room outside our stateroom. So, I rarely crop pictures except if it elements of the place we visited or to make them more centered or if I need to cut some off to fit it better on the page.

GL...

 

[TN Traveler]

When i first started scrap booking, I went to a CM show and had some pictures of a family reunion and a trip to the Zoo. The CMC was showing how to use the new (at the time) square cutter and cut a picture of one of my lions out....she left nothing but my lion!! There's no grass, rock formations or aything in the picture!!! This really bugged me and I refused to let her use my pictures for anything else...come to think of it I haven't ordered anything from her in a long time either! Thankfully I had made double prints and was able to use the picture the way I wanted but it still bothered me.
Karen

 

[ToDisney]

I rarely crop. It's usually only to center the picture or to crop out something I don't want in the picture. I think backgrounds can be important in telling the story. And forget cropping them into shapes, I need right angles!! The layout I did at the first CM party I ever went to has been re-done 3 or 4 times because I cut one picture into a circle. I'm finally happy with it!!

 

[WDWMom]

WOW, I must be in the minority. I am the cropping queen. I do like to have some background but I usually just center the person/people in the pic and then crop away. I try to take pics of other things to show landscape, view, etc...

 

[FantasticDisFamily]

I doubt it Sue - just different ideas of cropping. Sometimes the cropping is done ahead of time with photo composition, others by judicious printing, and others by trimming and centering.

Deb

 

[ToDisney]

WOW, I must be in the minority. I am the cropping queen. I do like to have some background but I usually just center the person/people in the pic and then crop away. I try to take pics of other things to show landscape, view, etc...

I think you missed the point a little bit. The idea isn't to crop too much out (if at all) because things like clothing, furniture and even cars can really date a picture. I don't think many take pictures of just their couches!!

I'm actually surprised so many don't crop. I got a snide comment directed at me during last month's challenge when I asked if I was the only one who did crop!!

 

[disneyfreakjackie]

I crop just enough so you can't see my fat thighs!!!!!!

and belly!!!

 

[PamCo88]

For me, it depends on the type of pictures. I crop the heck out of things like parades at disney (cut out around floats) People pictures i tend to leave much bigger except for if I'm in them, I chop of legs. I have a series of pitures of my neice in her carrier that I took every week for 3 months. Those I only cropped to take out the floating hand. I left in what ever else was around at the time, diaper bags, bottles, even throwup.