Three Creative Crops | A Club Click Course
as you’ve been shooting through the challenges this year, you’ve probably noticed that your shots have a certain ‘look’ or that you tend to shoot a certain way a majority of the time. for me, i find that i shoot pretty wide 95% of the time. however, every once in awhile, i get bored in my own shooting style so i’ll get creative with my cropping to bring a fresh look to my typically wide images. sometimes i shoot the image with the crop in mind, and other times i have no crop in mind and it all comes together while editing. i have three creative crops that i’m particularly drawn to. perhaps one of them will be just the breath of fresh air that your images need to switch things up from time to time.
the faceless crop. this is, without a doubt, my favorite crop to use. i crop my images like this for both my personal + client work and i just love it. the faceless crop is exactly what it sounds like. i take an image and crop the face right out. i love this crop because it gives the audience a chance to really see all of the other elements in the photo. in fact, it essentially draws attention to everything but the subject’s face..obviously. the image below was taken during my oldest daughter’s two year portrait session. i took plenty of her sweet face, but i also shot a couple of photos with the intention of cropping her face out to focus on her outfit, her shoes, and her tiny skinned knee. this might not be an image that you’re quick to frame + hang but years from now, you’ll be happy you snapped it.
the half face crop: the half face crop is only a crop i’ve recently become infatuated with. much like the faceless crop, the half face crops is exactly what it sounds like–an image with only half the face cropped out. however, unlike the faceless crop, the half face crop is a super creative crop to use when you’re wanting to bring attention to nothing but your subject’s face. in the image below, i cropped my youngest daughter’s face right down the middle. the original photo included her whole face-this was an crop that came together while editing. your attention is now immediately drawn to her big brown eye + lush eyelashes which wouldn’t have been the case had i left the photo uncropped.
crop for detail: a few weeks ago, we chatted about angles and when we talked about getting up high, we mentioned picking a focal point, like a baby’s legs, vs a facial focal point. you can obviously decide to pick any particular detail to highlight as your focal point, but cropping to blatantly display that detail is what i call cropping for detail. this can be fun to do because there really are no rules-you’re simply cropping your image to best display the detail that you selected as your focal point. the possibilities are endless! in the photo below, i was sitting behind my youngest daughter + couldn’t help but notice her supple back rolls. before she moved, i quickly snapped a photo with her back rolls as my focal point. when i came back to the image later to edit, i cropped in much closer than i typically would to bring her rolls to the top of my frame. this makes them easy for my viewer to identify and also makes for a more fun, creative image than i might normally shoot.
giving your image a creative crop is a simple way to add a breath of fresh air to a set of photos. this certainly isn’t something you should practice for every single image, but when you find yourself feeling in a bit of a creative slump, sometimes switching up your crop can really help get you back on track! this week i challenge you to snap your photos like you typically would, and then try some creative crops! it’ll be fun to see how they immediately transform your photos! don’t forget to post your images to social media using the hashtag #ClubClickPic! i can’t wait to see your images!