I recently posted a blog post about some of my bad days doing photos. Well. Thankfully, there are good days. Today. We’re touching one of my good days. I look at this set with pride… much like the other ones I’ve done that worked out great.

This is when you feel like you’ve arrived to the level of being an artist. This is the time when you feel great and want to open up shop and call yourself a professional photographer!

Yes, I know, I am already a pro… but I don’t feel like one. Too much honesty?

Anyway. Today, let’s talk about that moment when I felt I was a master photographer. What was my secret? Crop the living daylights out of you bad photos so they look as good as your good photos.

 

What? Hang tight.

Crop a photo to save a photo

 

I did a photo shoot, years ago, where I wanted to test some new lens and new flashes I had. Two of my friends agreed to join me in this test. As it was a bit impromptu, I used a room that was vacant… close to an event going on that we were attending.

Let’s just say… any room that works as a set should be… set ready. This was not the case. The room was in total shambles. It was the overflow and stocking room for the event.

No one should have been taking photos in this room. But being so eager to try out my new gear… I apologized in advance then went to work.

For years, I couldn’t share these images. I was embarrassed for my friends. I made them look horrible. The background was atrocious! I mean… I should have known better. I should have done better. I should… I didn’t.

Thankfully, I kept these photos. My skills grew over the years. The platforms for sharing also grew and matured over the years. Now… I was not limited to the standard size of the original to share the image. People changed the shapes and sized of their images to tell the story they want.

So… I got to cropping and cutting up my images. I totally revamped them. I lost some of the shine I wanted but gained perspective I loved. I now have a set of images I can actually share proudly online!

What makes these photos so fabulous? The models of course. I was out of the way. I let them shine. This is what I meant in my last post by not getting distracted by my own inner thoughts.

I snapped away and took the best images I could. The test was a success because I was learning and adjusting in real time. I have to thank my friends for their patience. The stayed the course and allowed me to pose them, adjust my settings, and take a shot over and over again.

In the end, it was all worth it. I got the images I wanted. I got the look I wanted. And… today… thanks to cropping… I got a set that looks pretty decent.

The Outtakes

In order to convince you of the marvels of cropping… it is important that I show you some of the… not so great compositions I did in the first place. That way, when you go follow the links to the edited versions… you’ll have reason to… lol…

 

As the images will show… the backgrounds were all wrong. I was not in a good place for this shoot. What was good about the place was the uniformity of the wall color and the white ceiling. I could control my lighting pretty well. Plus, the place was a bit small. Light bounced predictably and in a way I could adjust for nicely.

 

Realistically, if I really put effort, I could have cleaned up the place and made it better for the shoot, however… that was not the venue for me to do that… as others were using the place.

 

I was present enough to think about saving the images… meaning… getting photos that were usable with some editing. I didn’t have the best of skills back then… but I had enough vision to know I would eventually.

 

I found the place in the room that had the least amount of distractions and made the best of it. Then, I shot as ‘tightly’ as I could… so the focus was on the model and not the background. Some of the images didn’t need any cropping… because I was so tightly zoomed in on my friends.

Teaser

So.. How does it look to be properly cropped and framed? I’m sharing just a few… because I really want to keep all the good shots together on one page… with a lot less text. Easier to read that way. The links will be below.

 

One page will show one lady in her full splendor and the other page will do the same for the other. You’ll recognize them from other shoots that I’ve done. These friends have helped me so much. Had they not volunteered their time to let me learn by trial and error, I’d not be the photographer I am today.

 

And when I will eventually have time to elevate my skills even more… I won’t be able to do it without the generosity of friends who are willing to give of their time so I can learn. Sure, they get good photos out of the deal… but that’s not the point. The point is that I am grateful they helped me grow.

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Enjoy the links to the project pages that has the rest of the images… the well cropped ones… the well framed ones… the beautiful ones. The ones you really should take a look at. Thank you so kindly for checking these words and photos… as well as clicking like on the blog posts. Really appreciate that a ton.

Until next time… keep framing your perfect photos