It’s almost a stereotype to see someone with a camera stepping back and trying to zoom as wide as possible to get it all in. Especially while on vacation with the family lined up in front of some famous landmark. My advice is to not always try to cram every bit of information into your photo.

A tighter cropping that leaves elements out can say just as much while also yielding a more powerful image. Also, letting some of your subject run off the edges of the visible frame can be a very powerful compositional tool.

Of course this assumes you are doing it the right way.

Yes there is a right and a wrong way to crop, whether you are doing it in camera or during post processing.

You especially want to to beware when cropping people’s limbs; crops which occur at the joints (knees, elbows, wrists, etc.) often have a slightly creepy look. In the photography industry these are referred to as “painful crops”.

Since the joint is a natural termination point, when you crop at the joint a viewer’s eye (and mind) doesn’t automatically continue on to mentally fill in the rest of the missing limb.

Crops that fall between the joints (mid-thigh, mid-calf, etc.) tend to look more natural.

Each of the photos in the pair above was cropped from the exact same original. Both have exactly the same dimensions and exactly the same degree of magnification. The sole difference between them was placement of the crop frame.

Note that, in the picture on the left the crop is right at both knees and at the left elbow. In the one on the right, the crop was moved so that it wasn’t directly on any of the joints.

 For more than two dozen more quick tips for better composition, check out our ebook on the subject: