enJOY it

an archived personal and craft blog from Elise Blaha Cripe.

for the love of the crop.

Crop

I have said this before, but I have like seven tricks for taking photos. (See them here.) I do the same few things over and over again because I love the results that I get. One thing I haven’t written too much about is another favorite technique…

THE ART OF THE CROP.

I’m giving it it’s own post because it’s a big one! And some of my very favorite shots were cropped from less than awesome original images.

I have two ways of getting photos of me or me and Ellerie. The first is using the timer (or timercam on the iPhone). I beat this to death (sample one, two, three). I love the timer and I have talked about it endlessly. My favorite part about using the timer is the natural horizon that occurs when the camera is placed on the ground or flat surface. Eight out of ten shots look great (to my eye) from this perspective.

Cropsample2

The second, is, of course, handing the camera off to someone else. Most often, that’s Paul. Paul is AWESOME about photo taking. He smiles for photos. He is happy to be in photos. He appreciates good photos. As long as we keep the session short, he’s totally happy to take them for me. He gets it. And I am grateful for that.

Cropsample1

I am also SUPER picky and impatient (two winning traits, I know). So here is what we have figured out works well for us:

  1. I find the space for the shot (usually a graphic or blank wall).
  2. I make sure the lighting is good (usually the magic hour before sunset).
  3. I hand the camera (usually an iPhone) to Paul and dash (occasionally with Ellerie) into position.
  4. Paul knows to hold the camera level (tilted photos are my worst nightmare) and to take a bunch. (usually like 5-10.)
  5. I dash back to Paul, take a look at what we got and 9 times out of 10, I say “GREAT” and we move on with our lives.

Cropsample3

Then, later, I scroll through, find the “best” shot (generally based on my/our expression and rarely when we were perfectly posed) and crop it to what (to my eye) looks awesome.

It’s not magic and it’s totally scripted (I just wrote it out exactly how it unfolds). But it takes 45 seconds (which is ideal for Paul and Ellerie). And it results in photos I love (which is ideal for me).

Oh, Crop. I adore you, you art form, you.

all photos were taken with my iPhone and processed with the VSCO app.

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29 responses to “for the love of the crop.”

  1. Johanna Avatar
    Johanna

    Fantastic visuals here. Also, I will totally embrace the time frame tip (45 sec to the rescue) and see what we can come up with. We’ve had a lot of “Where were you, Mama?” “I was taking the picture.” conversations here lately. So, yay! We can do this, right? Right.
    Man, I so often feel like my comment could come straight out of a self-help group transcript here. I guess you could take this as a compliment, right! Right? … I’ll stop now. 🙂

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  2. Natanya Avatar
    Natanya

    Love the play by play of how the pictures get taken. I hope my husband will begin be to get on board with picture taking..it would make everything a lot easier! 😉

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  3. Ann Avatar
    Ann

    Hmm… I’m sensing a theme. Keep it simple, have a plan, get it down, cut the “crap”?

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  4. erin Avatar
    erin

    you probably already know this, but both camera+ AND afterlight both have “straightening” features, and they’re VERY easy to use…
    this is SUCH a great option for me, since i’m incredibly fussy about straight horizons, also.

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  5. Leah Noble Avatar
    Leah Noble

    Awesome post, I loved seeing the original photo and then how you cropped it.

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  6. Marian Avatar
    Marian

    So good to be reminded of the power of the crop, all too easy to forget. So today I’m going to crop crop crop and see what we end up with!
    Thanks for the tips as always Elise.

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  7. Ali Avatar
    Ali

    Cropping rocks. Totally what I do too.

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  8. Kerrie Avatar
    Kerrie

    Are you supposed to edit (i.e. brighten, contrast, etc.) before or after cropping. I never know!

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  9. Mary Avatar
    Mary

    The cropping in that second photo is amazing. It was really helpful to see the original and the cropped photo to see how you get that great look. It really drew my eye to Ellerie’s face where I might not have focused on it as much if you had kept the original.

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  10. JC Avatar
    JC

    My fiance is just starting to pick up an interest in taking photos for me. I could not be happier about this. It has already resulted in double the memorable moments that i have on film this year. That’s huge for me. Thanks for this little run down, I’m going to make him read it.

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  11. Elise Avatar
    Elise

    My issue isn’t the horizon being straight as much as the camera. I hate when it’s titled a bit forward or a bit backward (as to look down or look up) if that makes sense. 🙂

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  12. Welcome Home Taylor Avatar
    Welcome Home Taylor

    A good crop is definitely necessary in the scheme of picture taking. I love the way that you crop a lot of your photos to make them look more unique and artful.
    xoxo
    Taylor

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  13. Elise Avatar
    Elise

    On my phone I always do it before. 🙂

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  14. Mika (Oshiro Design) Avatar
    Mika (Oshiro Design)

    It’s amazing what cropping does to take a good photo and turn it into a great photo! (of course, if you have an eye for cropping, which you clearly do) It’s awesome to see cropping from your perspective and crop things out that I may not have tried. Thanks for the refreshing post! (:

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  15. Jen S Avatar
    Jen S

    Do you ever find it hard to crop to a square for Instagram? I love Instagram, but I often find the square a hard crop for me, so I use another app that allows me to post a rectangular photo. I have found that when printing my Instagrams, I love the way square looks (like for a polaroid look or ChatBooks), so I’m still trying to wrap my head around the crop. Any tips? (I feel like that’s an insanely long, hard to understand question…Sorry!)

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  16. Michal Lynn Avatar
    Michal Lynn

    I have only started reading your blog in the last couple of months, but I can’t tell you how glad I am that it was recommended to me. Your writing style is so informative and fun to read, and you utilize photographs so well. Thank you for this space!!

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  17. Rossana Avatar
    Rossana

    Your tips are great as usual. Would you share your tips on photographing food? Thank you!

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  18. Jennifer D Avatar
    Jennifer D

    You have mastered the crop! And the blog post, for that matter. 🙂

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  19. goshery Avatar
    goshery

    Cropping photos is interesting for sure but let’s talk about the important things. Ellerie is wearing sandles! with open toes! SO cute!!

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  20. Rachel Avatar
    Rachel

    I love a good crop. It’s a simple way to make an average photo into an amazing one.

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  21. Vicki Parker Avatar
    Vicki Parker

    Definitiely a cropper here too and have a husband who is a camera tilter. He calls it being arty but drives me nuts. 🙂

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  22. Debbie Avatar
    Debbie

    Perfect, and perfect examples!

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  23. Elise Avatar
    Elise

    Actually I LOVE the square. I think it’s a fun crop size and I find myself thinking in it often. 🙂 holding the phone vertical usually helps me guarentee I can crop square….wish I could be more help!

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  24. Elise Avatar
    Elise

    Yes! I’ll add this to the list.

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  25. erin Avatar
    erin

    yep! i totally get what you mean!
    if you’re taking people pics, it either results in the big head/teeny body look…or vice versa 🙂

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  26. erin Avatar
    erin

    not trying to over-comment here, but i LOVE this tip! you should add it as an addendum to your blog post!!! i post OFTEN to IG and have a VERY hard time “thinking square.”
    the thought of taking pics vertically (rather than horizontally) to ensure the square-crop capability will TOTALLY change my IG’ing. thanks SO much!

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  27. J3SS1C4 Avatar
    J3SS1C4

    Love this post! I’m also a big phone of getting good crops on photos, and have an aversion to photos that are not straight! I need to be a lot better about getting in photos though. You do such an awesome job of making sure you are in your own pictures! 🙂

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  28. zaby Avatar
    zaby

    This is a cute and lovely post. i always have problems cropping my photos

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  29. Dancing Through Sunday Avatar
    Dancing Through Sunday

    Crop has done some very magical things for me!

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