I remember reading many years ago about how various newspapers differed in their photography skills and how the Sunday Times photography was rated very highly, mainly because they had a certain skill with their cropping.  I remember looking at their photographs of important events compared to other newspapers and it was true, theirs seemed clearer and more intense, mainly through the skill of the person who cropped the photograph.  You see they had got all of the key elements without any of the other distractions that may have been going on.  But over the years I’ve often thought about it and I can’t quite decide whether I like an over cropped photograph or not.  Certainly you can get a cleaner image, but sometimes I think you lose a little something, a little flavour, a little seasoning,  it might just be a sense of an overall composition that could be lost or just not appreciated.

This shot I took of Toile, I think as it stands is very beautiful, the darkness of her outline stretched out on a feather filled cream sofa with cream brocade curtains as a backdrop. We can read that this is one pampered and very content cat.

But we can alter that just slightly and take away a little darkness that is not necessary at the left hand side.  And I think we still have the same effect and have her centered in the photograph.

But then we could take that a little bit further and we can see more of her detail and still have the depth of the cushion to show just how comfy she must be, so you still have a flavour of the original photograph but with more detail of her.

And then if we crop it again, to a fairly sharp crop, we do have much more detail of her, but I feel we have lost the serenity and the feeling of luxuriousness that was captured just at that moment in time.

Most of the time Toile thinks she is all dog.  I find her asleep at my feet, much like my beloved Golden Retriever was, I have to look down before I walk away from the keyboard or whilst watch the television for fear of treading on her. 

Cropping in this case has a benefit, you can still see she is on the floor as her front paw is curled around the leg of a table whilst at the same time seeing more detail.  Although it has to be said, I quite like the uncropped version too.

Cropping the quandary of the digital photographer.