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| Cropping "Barrel Racing" All images used in these tutorials are copyright Angela M. Cable. You may download and use them for the sole purpose of following the tutorial. |
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Got a problem in the corner. Without even looking at this image very hard we can see that we have a problem right off the bat. In the lower left corner, extremely out of focus, but definitely visible, is some of the railing that I had to shoot through. It is distracting and draws the eye away from our subject. We could fool around with retouching tools to replace this with other portions of the dirt. Looking at the image as a whole, I think that it could be made more dynamic by creating something that looks almost like a panoramic shot. In order to do this we will have to crop from either the top or the bottom. Since we all ready have a flaw in the bottom and less space at the top, let's try that first. |
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Use the standard crop tool. Click on the  Crop tool. Start at the top left of the image, drag the crop all the way to the right and then just to the top of the defect at the bottom. Double click inside the crop area on the image to perform the crop. (I've drawn over the bottom crop line here to make it visible, you will not see a line this intense when you use the tool). |
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What do I do about filling the frame? Shown to the left is an inappropriate crop. The subject fills the frame. Running the Grid by Cells script, there are areas of interest at the intersection at the top right and the horizon is properly placed. So what is the problem? We have a moving object (the horse) that has no space to run "into". It looks like that horse is going to hit his nose pretty hard up against the edge of the photo. While filling the frame is usually a good idea, in this case it doesn't work at all. Let's go back to our original crop. |
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Run Grid by Cells Run the Grid by Cells script on the original crop. I've changed the color of the grid lines here because the grey is hard to see. (To change grid line color, right click on the image title, choose "Change Grid, Guide and Snap Properties". In the dialog click on the bottom color swatch to bring up the color picker). The horizon is just a bit off. The horse and rider are in a good place, because they are obviously moving, we want them to appear to be moving "into" the frame. Use the Crop tool to crop off some of the top of the image. The grid lines placed by the script do not update themselves as you do this. You need to re-run the script after each crop to check placement. |
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Finished crop A distracting element has been removed. The horizontal movement of the horse and rider is heightened by the "panoramic" type crop. The front of the horse and the rider are just past the first vertical line, appearing to be racing into the center. The horse has plenty of room to move into the frame. Compared to the original shot, this image is more dynamic and visually exciting. |
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The next page will show how to add movement to an image by rotating and cropping. |
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