frames and cropping

[Shawn O]

Hello all

1. I was wondering how do I put a frame on my photo's I see members photo's with boarders "frames" around them and they look great how do I do that???

2. how do I know what makes a good cropped photo ?? I do understand composition but cropping baffles me LOL.

Shawn O

[rob marshall]

Shawn

Do you use Flickr? Do you have a pro account? If so, the best way to frame for on-line images is to use Picnik (it's accessed from the 'actions' menu when you select a shot) This is what it looks like. Very easy to use. There are many other ways to do it, including Photoshop, but Flickr is probably the easiest.

If you don't understand composition, I'd urge you to take a look at any number of on-line tutorials, and I'm sure others can suggest books that might help. Try this to start with Photography video tutorials and this one https://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tu...-of-thirds.htm

[rob marshall]

I think I got that wrong about Picnik. It seems any user of Flickr can access it, but you might need the a Pro account to access more features. Help page http://www.flickr.com/help/picnik/

[Shawn O]

Thank you I use Flickr I was just wondering is there was something I was missing... I do understand composition within a photo but my issue is with cropping I guess is what elements make a good cropped picture??? All the help I can get would be good

Thank you
Shawn O

[Dave Humphries]

~ I was just wondering is there was something I was missing... I do understand composition within a photo but my issue is with cropping I guess is what elements make a good cropped picture??? All the help I can get would be good

Hi Shawn,

Surely; if the composition is correct, why do you feel a need to crop it?
Yes, it might be a step in a PP workflow, but one that can be skipped on occasion, it isn't mandatory

In my hands, cropping is usually done because I didn't get the composition right in camera

On a good day; that's often because I couldn't get near enough to the subject, so for wildlife shots, cropping is used to give me more effective lens 'reach' and tidy the composition up.

Sometimes, say motorsport, or birds in flight, etc., you have enough trouble getting the central focus point on the subject you're follow panning, that composition has to be achieved in PP by cropping - but all you do is apply those same rules of composition.

Occasionally (for me), or more often (for others), a shot will be taken in the knowledge that the sensor's aspect ratio is not correct for the final composition - e.g. you'll know you'll have to crop a sunset on a beach to have a ratio of 2:1 say, or possibly a portrait 'wants' to be square, so again, you'll crop using the rules of composition.

To me, composition and cropping are almost the same thing, timing (shooting vs PP) is all that differs.

This was one of those questions that I discovered, while writing an answer, proves there's no such thing as a daft question

It made me think, so thank you,