- [Instructor] In this movie,
we're going to take a look at cropping,
just a few different things that will help you
when you need to make crops with images.
And actually to a certain extent,
when you're taking an image yourself as well.
Now, while I'm in Photoshop,
this could be any software at all.
And this isn't an exercise where you need to get involved
with any software.
It's really the concept
rather than where I'm actually working on the image.
Okay. So here I'm using a crop tool
which has as I move it around,
you'll see it's got a really handy rule of thirds grid.
And the rule of thirds is a compositional arrangement
that has existed for a very, very long time.
And basically, you're aiming to have action areas
or something leading to the action
at one of the intersections.
But it's nice and handy to divide this up.
Now, if I was cropping at this particular point,
and this isn't a good crop, just here,
I've actually got,
even though it's a background element here,
what's known as an unfortunate amputation.
And we can clearly see that this is a mountain
going to a peak.
But having that cropped off, like so,
actually ruins the image.
When you bring it back down
so that that is more inside of this section, just here,
you can see how that's a much more successful crop.
Now, if I go across to another image here, okay,
this is a very similar thing.
But you can't go in too tight here, like so.
And you may have a particular ratio,
by the way, to work to because it starts to get boring.
Now what I'm doing just here as well
is using the horizon line in this top section here.
I could bring it down if the subject wasn't right there.
So it's around about that region.
But you see, it's towards the middle
and the subject there as well,
is disappearing into the bottom.
And of course the subject here is the main event.
So I'm just going to take that slightly over
to the side like so.
And again, there's another slightly unfortunate amputation
just there because there's a yak just coming into the edge
of the frame.
But that one might be slightly less critical.
They don't always have to be in the image like so.
And if I wanted to, and if it really was destroying
the image, I would clone that one out afterwards.
And finally, if you're cropping people,
we form an emotional connection with faces.
So making the focus of the image the face is a good idea.
And this is actually already pretty much the case
in this picture.
If I bring the grid in, you can see here
that that eyebrow is just leading us in to the section
just underneath it, everything there happening.
And the baby is the center of attention.
But I could perhaps get away
with being a bit tighter on the crop like so,
bringing that in just a bit
and then just bringing that up.
So I've got the same thing happening.
I've got action in the form of the eyebrows,
bringing everything in to this section here.
And the baby's face is nicely in the middle of that line.
And these are only a guide.
They're not a rule set,
but they will help you to divide any space up
if you're taking a picture into these nine sections,
or if you're working on a page,
into these nine sections in here,
making a crop like so.
Your tools might also have something like this.
So if I'm rotating the image here
because this is another common problem
that people have, where the image is just at a slight angle.
Okay. And you're trying to get align,
then you should get a finer grid like so.
But do investigate that.
And at the bare minimum, use the rule of thirds grid
to assist you with your composition.