Photography was Hard Until I Learned This!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.พ. 2025
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In this week’s episode, we discuss how photography was hard until I learned this one simple technique! One of the most difficult aspects of photography is improving ones compositional skills. There's a ton of opinions out there on the topic, but what I'll share with you in this video is what simplified it all for me. I always struggled with "paralysis by analysis" where I would try and apply too many compositional "rules" at the same time. The technique I'll cover here, simplified the entire process and improved my photography at the same time! I hope you enjoy this week's video and as always thanks so much for watching! - Mark D.
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✅QUESTION: What's the Hardest part of Photography for you?
I guess the hardest part for me is composition, but I would combine finding the right location since it is an inherent part of composition in my opinion. And by location, I mean both the general location, but the specific location from where I am shooting.
Small waterfalls (10 to 15 foot). When to use a ND filter or a polarizer and the value of each.
@@bkc1965 100%. This is, without question, the hardest part for me. Well articulated.
Editing. I have various patterns and rules of thumb, but I never feel like I really have a solid idea of what I'm doing, or if I could be doing it better if I'd just happened on different tutorials earlier on.
I'm on the same spot, @@drmathochist06
I'd add one small point, allowing a bit of extra space also means any slight tilt from the horizontal can be corrected. It's amazing how much image you lose for a tiny inclination! Great video and images as usual, thanks Mark.
Please get this man to 300k already
Good article Mark! It's time to start a list of your favorite one line landscaping tips. I'll start but please feel free to add:
Shooting for the crop
Expose to the right (histogram)
Shoot in RAW
Shoot manual , auto iso
Check the view behind you
Mark, I forward many of your videos (like this one) to our Photography Club members, and many of them report how useful and enlightening they are. We have about 200 members in our club, we take many field trips and their photography skill improvements over time are truly impressive. Thank you.
Amazing to hear this - thank ya!
Thanks, Mark. It's always good to watch your stuff. Have a wonderful Christmas and hope to see more in the new year.
Do you crop differently if you plan to print, or plan to sell noting that custom framing is costly? Or is it the "correct crop" is worth the custom frame?
This issue is one of my main problems. If I have the freedom to freely crop without regard to maintaining a common aspect ratio, cropping is very easy. However, my girlfriend is often asking me to print images for framing, so I feel obligated to maintain a common aspect ratio, as acloud4 notes. Can you address this issue?
On a related note, I love shooting 16x9 shots, but I don't remember any merchants selling frames appropriate to that size. So these photos tend to live digitally only. Do you know of any sources of 16x9 frames?
All great questions regarding cropping ratio and print requirements...seems we need some guidance on setting up the crop & print relationship
Hardest part - the temptation to over adjust the colors for sunsets
Shoot to crop - great illustration, demo and explanation, Thanks. Will add it to my shooting checklist. Bonus benefit - I often lose corners if I need to level the horizon, but not if I shoot to crop. Also like discussion on reflections
Glad it was helpful!
"Shooting for the crop", thanks for putting a name to the thought or technique of saving yourself from yourself. I've recognized this in two ways. Full-frame aspect ratio is not 4x5 (8x10 print) ratio, so open it up so you don't loose good details. Also, I tend to shoot tight by nature and I don't always frame perfectly horizontal even when on a tripod with in camera level, so open it up for correction later. Shoot for the Crop, got it now!
Thanks for the tips sir!!
I loved the photo with those trees in the water (bald cypresses?), their reflections and shapes. Like suprarealism art.
Wow!
It's interesting that I don't recall having heard the phrase Shoot to crop before, though I think I may have often done it instinctively. Great content as always.
Watching this video reminded me of something that is a bit of a challenge for me. I often shoot with the hopes that I'll find a few photos worthy of printing and potentially framing.
I noticed that you crop starting with a common print size ratio (e.g. 4x5), but will also unlock the ratio and custom crop. That makes perfect sense from a composition perspective. What I struggle with when I do a custom crop is when I go to get a print made, I now have something that doesn't fit well within the confines of the more "standard" print sizes. Sure, I could find a lab that will print custom sizes, but that will be significantly more expensive than printing to the standard sizes. I assume this is because the labs have tons of precut sheets, vs having to custom cut something.
As a hobbyist, it's sometimes hard to justify the extra cost of finding a lab that will print a custom crop size. If you decide to print a custom crop item, what's your recommended strategy for avoiding the expense of a custom sized print? Would you tend toward printing on a larger sheet leaving white space or potentially cropping further into a standard size. I realize there isn't a one-size fits all take on this. I'm just curious about your thoughts overall.
I was thinking the same thing, it's easy to custom crop if you aren't printing. Once you start bringing the photo into the physical world now we're talking custom print sizes [ the least expensive IMO ] + a custom frame [ the most expensive part ].
Sorry. Leave room to crop if you plan on printing as you never know what sizes you may end up needing, especially if you sell prints.
In my earlier days, I learned the hard way not to zoom in too much. All too often, I didn't have enough space to make the crop I wanted in post processing. I also worked at making it a habit to take more than one shot (zoom out and zoom in) so that I can avoid having to crop out too much of an image since I use micro 4/3 gear (20 mega pixel sensor). In the same vein, I've learned to follow the recommendation to shoot in both the horizontal and vertical orientation. Thanks for another great video.
Glad to do it!
Thanks Mark! As you said, “shoot for the crop.” You can crop in but to put it another way it’s crap if you have to go out. (That is not as misspelled word.) The hardest part of photography for me is trying not to get caught so much into the scene and not properly compose.
It helps if you’re shooting with a higher res sensor. 24 megapixels vs 45 megapixels…
Photography has always been easy. Good photography will never be easy. Great photography will always be difficult.
Excelente todos tus programas . Gracias por la traducción al español 😊
Love the video. I'm a big fan of shooting for the crop, which brings me to the hardest part of photography for me. I love everything and as a result, I sometimes put too much in my frame. I can't seem to help myself.
Thank you!
Mark - great video on cropping. And greetings from Brittany. The cropping video raised a question for me. I rarely post comments so I hope you get this. The question- in the 1st two images - as you cropped you also unlocked the crop selection and exposed more sky or, in the reflection you exposed more leaves. How often do you move away from the standard crop ratios?
Thanks
"The name of the game is fill the frame" has helped me a lot over the years, along the same lines
I always enjoy cropping out a small part of my day to watch and learn from your videos!
I see what you did there:) Thank ya!
Great advice! I really enjoy your images. Almost 300k subscribers! I remember when I found your channel you have 1k. Great work!
Excellent photos and excellent tutorial. Quick question though: when you use the “Freeform” of the cropping how do you handle printing if the size isn’t a direct print size (4x5 etc)? Many thanks Mark.
Great recommendations. And your photos are just beautiful! Great work.
Thanks Paul!
Zooming out a little can also give you room to rotate. I have found that rotating the image to adjust for things not quite being level can really cost you some image real estate.
Hey Mark, great video as always. Question for ya, do you think crop should be done before or after editing..?
Thank you. When you adjust the crop for what is important resulting in an odd image aspect ratio, how do you get that printed on metal/canvas at one of the standard sizes offered at most print shops?
Fantastic tip 👏👏👏
Thank you!
A very interesting concept of photographing for the crop. It makes sense to add just a little bit extra after you have dialed in your scene. I guess a few questions I have is when you are composing your scene, either in-camera or via the viewscreen, how much extra do you initially include? Or, is it a matter of personal taste or what the scene is dictating? Another question is would you consider multiple exposures of various compositions with different croppings and possibly culling out those images later when you edit at home? As always, another great video on a topic that is fairly new to me. I always learn or pick some bit of info. or something new from your videos and I do appreciate it alot.
Hi Mark, when you are "shooting for the crop," do you have in mind the standard paper sizes you will be using for your ultimate print? Also, it looks like in your editing you are not cropping for standard paper sizes but rather for the image. If you wanted to print to a 11 x 14 inch paper, would you take that into consideration when you are editing the image?
Great video Mark! Great tip.
Glad to hear it!
Loved the tip, will start applying it when I get back out into the field.
Thanks Brad!
Thank you so much for the grat video!
You can, in fact, crop out. It's called stable diffusion outpainting.
In the end i think its your overall editing skills that makes the difference.
Great content as always! For image #3 [ Colorado, yellow foliage/red building] I would have left it uncropped. The darker foliage provided a natural frame, and the additional megapixels would allow for larger native print. I liked it as shot which is surprising since I find myself preferring 4x5 aspect ratios over 3x2. Personally I prefer to crop w/ no grid, as I've found grids make me instantly frame based on rule of thirds. I would prefer to frame based solely on what makes the most interesting image and I find that rules of thirds doesn't always equal that. Horses for courses I suppose.
When you crop do you try to keep standard dimensions like 3:4 or 5x7? Or do just freeform crop to where you like the composition?
The composition is still hardest I think. The whole lot of elements that lead to composition makes it hardest: getting out the door to location, catching the good light, getting the right angle, selecting how much to put in/ leave out in the frame, getting right settings to avoid unintended blur, being lucky with moving elements such as: birds, humans, ships, clouds, thunder bolts, falling leaves...
I think this is the video i needed in this moment. I've been struggling a lot with compositions as it relates to what to put into a photo. Watching this gives me a way to figure things out.
Also, i thought they closed the Crystal Mill due to iresponsible influencers and other vistors.
Great to hear you enjoyed it! It's still open you just cant get down to the river any longer.
Great video, thanks 👍 Looking forward to see Lightroom Colors Course, but till up now no response for weeks.
Send me an email and I'll help you out.
@@MarkDenneyPhoto I already did several times.
Mark, are you going to be at Imaging USA in Grapevine, TX in February? If yes, I would like to meet you in person. I will be there.
No I wont be there this year
I stress about cropping all the time due to framing issues. My thinking is that if I stick to certain aspect ratios, framing will be much easier. True enough but I frame almost nothing really and when I do, I prep especially for that. almost all of my stuff is viewed on a screen where it really doesn't matter.
Hi Mark! Another informative video. Thank you. Quick question…I see you are using an Apple Studio display and I was wondering if you have the nano-texture display? If so, what are your thoughts? I’m in the process of buying a new MacBook Pro and they are now offering the nano-texture display as an option. Would you recommend it? Why or why not? I’m concerned with whether or not it would negatively affect image quality and therefore my edits. Any advice you can give would be greatly appreciated.
Glad you enjoyed it! I love my Studio Display but I've never used the nano texture version
Mark: do you stick to standard crop sizes? 3:2, 3:4, 9:16, 1:1? Other?
Do you always crop in a 4:5 ratio to start?
Do you break the aspect ratio, and do you crop into non-standard dimensions?
If I have no plans on printing the photo then I dont mind breaking it a bit
Now after explanation it’s easy 😉
👍👍👍
"...but you can't crop out..." HAHA, r-right :D
My issue with many of my older photos that I want to get printed was not zoom in on the subject and therefore having to crop a large portion of the photo to give attention to the subject therefore when I exported it with a resolution of 250- 300 PPI, I was limited on how big the print could be without losing the quality of the image so I definitely consider this more frequently now.
Are we just gonna ignore that Sony Walkman cassette model on the desk? Inquiring minds want to know what tape is inside.
Crop out with generative fill in Photoshop.
Can someone explain why take a photo when you can take a video instead?
Why would you want to take a video of anything?
@@dillank3240 That's what I am trying to answer. Why would anyone take a photo when you can take 24 photos per second,
Try hanging a video on the wall
Images look like AI generated after editing.
“You can crop in, but not crop out”. Not entirely true with the new AI generative expand in Photoshop. The trouble is that AI just makes it up, imagining details which were not really there. But I am sure we will increasingly see made up expansions. This may be able to save images taken with too tight composition, but whether one considers it a proper choice to pad out reality with artificial intelligence is a personal choice, unless perhaps it is done not for artistic purposes but with the intention to mislead, in which case it is definitely not ethical.