Lens-Artists Challenge#385 – Unusual Crop

Posted on by

Ritva hosts this weeks Lens-Artist Challenge and has asked us to provide image examples of unusual or extreme cropping – ‘This week, we encourage you to deliberately defy traditional framing conventions.‘ Ritvas original challenge post can he found here.

A rare (for me) post processing crop. The image has a lot more impact as a square image. I was asked to remove this pic from Alamy by the National Portrait Gallery. They were very nice about it but that’s another story!

I was initially thrown by the challenge because I associate cropping with post image production which, other than small crops to straighten an image or nudge something onto a third, I rarely do. But then I realised that’s because I do all my cropping in camera as part of the image composition process. I guess that’s still cropping but just before, rather than after, I’ve taken my picture. So, I’ll start with a few examples of this process and then move on to some extreme crops I did make in post process for a particular project.

When I started out shooting weddings one tutor told me to consider shooting images in a particular order to balance an album or set of images. The process was to start with a wider image to set a scene with a general shot. Then zoom or move in to crop a tighter image within that scene. Then consider getting close up, or cropping in, for a detail shot.

This works really well but not just for weddings. The same theory, or cropping rule, works for all sorts of photography situations. It works especially well for blogging. Here’s an example from a photo shoot I did with a guy called Martyn Evans, a guitar tech who works with a band called Architects. Here are three images that fit this cropping in rule.

The first general shot of Martyn working in his small workshop.
A closer more detailed cropped shot of Martyn working on a guitar fret board.
A close crop detail shot of the same guitar.

Here’s an example of the same story telling cropping process used in food photography. I would have shot these scones (biscuits in America) like this to maximise the images I could upload to my stock site but it also works well as a set of images for a baking blog….

Another set of images shot using the cropping in process. My wife Linda making her own Dubai Chocolate bars just before last Xmas….

Two square crops to pick out a brides colourful tights as an album feature.
This was an unusual crop, made in camera. I wanted to capture Lacy, in the foreground, with her mum and dad, the bride and groom in the same shot. It breaks a few composition rules but really works for me. Mum and Dad thought the same and had this printed up as a wall canvas after the wedding.

Moving on. Below are some examples of extreme cropping made in post processing. In 2013 I photographed the Gromit Unleashed Sculpture Trail around Bristol. Having made the effort to visit every sculpture, including one in London, I decided to make up a book to record my efforts.

Early in the book process I decided that I wanted to record the trail images as polaroid style photographs, just to be a bit different. I have a polaroid camera but the cost of using that for the project was prohibitive. I decided to use software to create my polaroids using Photoshop Actions and ‘Polaroid generator V3’. All I had to do was shoot the Gromits but keep in mind that the final image would need to be in a square’ish format for the Polaroids.

Two extreme cropped Gromit images converted into Polaroids
The original pre cropped Gromit sculpture image for the image above.
Another tight crop shown on the right for my Gromit book cover. I find shooting vertical image crops are really hard to get right, especially with food images.
The original pre cropped image for the polaroid above. I’ve left lots of space for the square crop I knew I had to make for the polaroid.
I’ll leave you with this tight crop wedding image. I probably shot it like this with an album cover in mind.

That’s it for me this week. I hope I’ve hit the brief with my three pics cropping rule, if it’s even a thing! Thank you to Ritva for setting and hosting this weeks challenge.

All images: ©Stephen Hyde 2007-2025 – All rights reserved.

27 thoughts on “Lens-Artists Challenge#385 – Unusual Crop”

  6. Steve, you have this down to an art form. Congratulations! From the opening shot — superb! — to the following shots, every photo is perfect. The guitar series is my favorite.

    Reply ↓

  7. Loved your post Steve. The image of the little girl with the wedding couple is my favorite. Not surprised a bit that they framed and hung it. Also loved your Gromi-Roids book cover, very clever – as was your “polaroid” series. Terrific work.

    Reply ↓

  8. I like what you have done here and I really enjoyed reading your post. I remember back in the day doing film, we were constantly told to crop in camera and I must admit it is something I still do, but every now and then I see a photo that I think needs cropping. I love the shot of Lacy.

    Reply ↓

Leave a reply to Pepper Cancel reply