Tag: Cropping the Shot

This week, Patti has asked us “show how cropping helped to improve an image and create a desired effect.”

I enjoy wildlife photography and even though I usually use a zoom lens the animal or bird I am photographing is often too far away to get a good close up. I crop many of my wildlife photos in order to make the animal the focal point of the image.

Here is the before image of a Ruby Throated Hummingbird at a feeder. The hummingbird is the focal point of the shot but he is too far away to see his face clearly and there are too many distractions around him.

After cropping the photo, I was able to get the desired effect of a closeup of the bird without all of a extra space around him.

All this spring I’ve been watching a  pair of Painted Buntings who come by my feeder almost daily. This week was the first time I was able to get some photos of the female. In the original image she’s too far away and I didn’t like having the bird bath in the shot.

After the crop, the female Bunting is the star of the show.

The before picture of a Blanket Flower in my garden is ok, but the bricks and mulch take away from the vibrant colors of the flower.

When I cropped the photo into a square, the colorful flower takes center stage.

Many thanks to Patti for this weeks Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Cropping the Shot