In life, there are ups and downs to everything, it seems. Whether it be political speeches and candidates, offering photo cropping services or even types of food; literally everything has good and bad associated with it. Let’s talk about some of the good and bad things that photo cropping services can bring on, if that is a service you decide to include as part of a professional photo editing service.
The Good
Cropping photos is more than just cutting them up. You can do a lot of things when it comes to photo cropping services. For example:
- You can remove the background in order to insert a new one. This is most easily done with a green screen or a solid color background being used during the shoot so that it is easily cropped out and then you can put anything else behind the subject; sunset, ocean, etc.
- You can remove entire persons if your customer decides they shouldn’t be in the picture anymore. This most often happens in family pictures when significant others are broken up with or divorced.
- You can change the shape of someone if that is what they request. Many people would like to have their arms slimmed down or face thinned, but this is not something you want to offer unless they bring it up; see why below.
- You can take out blemishes in the picture or the background. Examples of this would be things like baby drool coming out of the side of the mouth during a newborn shoot or a beautiful field ruined by several dead flowers or perhaps the wind blew one to many hairs across the subject’s face.
The Bad
Photo cropping services are not always fully understood by people. Editing in general can be a controversial subject because of what the common person uses cropping and editing for.
- Customers can become offended when you offer to crop because they assume you think there is something wrong with the way they look. If you offer to make their waist line more defined, the subject will most likely think you are calling them fat and may excuse your services without paying you.
- Cropping without permission can lead to awkward exchanges. For example, my sister had a photo shoot done during her senior year and being athletic, she was in quite good shape with a slender body. However, when she got her picture back, she noticed her arms had been made even skinnier. When she questioned the photographer, he casually said that he thought she would prefer it. The confidence she previously had in her looks wavered for a little while after that.
- Some photographers can get ‘crop happy.’ This is when they begin cropping at a bunch a little things all over the picture and then the picture has that ‘photoshopped’ look as if the picture is fake.
- Customers can also get ‘crop happy.’ Ever since the picture of the guy in jeans and a t-shirt crouched on the wing of an airplane up in the clouds? That is probably not a real depiction of how this guy actually spend his vacation.
The Ugly
The whole point of cropping is to make a picture look nicer, not uglier. If editing is going to damage your photo, maybe that particular shot doesn’t need it. Don’t rely on cropping during live photo shoots either. You aren’t always going to be able to crop out everything that you dislike about an image. The truth can be ugly but the fact is, if you do not have a lot of skills as a photographer, no amount of cropping or editing is going to save you. It may help you out, but you need to be able to see the full picture, literally before snapping. If editing is the only way that you can be happy with your pictures, then maybe it’s time to look into a different career or at least extra courses and classes on photography.
Be sensitive as you offer cropping and editing services. Make sure your customers know that you are not trying to change the authenticity of the picture. Editing and cropping is merely a tool that can be utilized to clean up the picture and make the subject stand out more.