To crop or not to crop? Quite often I will crop my photos of small birds so that the bird is more prominent in the frame. This is especially the case when the background is cluttered.
Last Thursday, I captured an image of a male Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis) in which the background was not at all cluttered. The bluebird was perched on a the skeleton-like branches of a small tree. The composition of my image was more or less as you see in the first shot below, with the tree centered in the frame and lots of “white space” surrounding the subject.
What do you think? I cropped the same image closer for the second image below, with the bird now larger in the frame and pushed to the right a bit, almost following the “rule-of-thirds” guidelines. Do you like the second image better?
As a final experiment, I did a square crop that retained some of the symmetry of the first image, but chopped the branches off on both sides. From an artistic perspective, I like the first image best, but suspect that the third image might be the most popular with the majority of viewers.
So do you have a preference for one image over the others? Does the aspect ration make a difference for you? In case you are curious, the aspect ratios of the three photos were 3:2, 5:4, and 1:1. Different social media platforms display images differently, so the same photo might have a different “feel” when posted on different platforms. I know, for example, that Facebook will sometimes add a color border to the sides of some of my images or display the image with a crop.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Very nice Series of Bluebird images Mike! I like the 1:1 image best! Not so much because of the 1:1 ratio but because the Bluebird is larger in the image showing more detail! Always fun to photograph Bluebirds!
Each picture has different merits, so hard to chose. The second is most conventional, the third is best for bird characteristics. All great.
OMG! Mike! We are obsessed with this photo (especially in the 3:2 aspect ratio)! 🙂
Thanks, Brian and/or Kristina. I had a suspicion that you might like the image. 🙂
Interesting exercise, Mike. I like the first image best… space for the bird on its branch.
Thanks, Chris. Normally I go through the decision-making about cropping an image by myself, but I thought it would be fun to share a bit of that process with others. Folks who don’t take photos very frequently don’t realize how many creative choices a photographer makes in getting a shot and in processing it.
The first image for me, Mike. The branch makes the image different than your standard bluebird pic and the bird is big enough to really see what you’ve got. I like that subtle hint of another tree trunk in the background, too.
Thanks, Ellen. If I were to print the image, I would definitely go with the first one, for the reasons you mentioned.
Bluebirds are so lovely! I like the 2nd pic but with most of the upper white bit cropped off.. so that it doesn’t ‘compete’ with the white plumage on the bird 🙂
Beautiful bird, great capture! I think, in this case, I actually prefer the first, I cropped image. That is because the bird is so vivid that I don’t see the need to crop in to make it more central to the image but, more importantly to me personally, I happen to like seeing the end of that cute twig the bird is sitting on. Somehow I feel that the character of the tree is shown better in the uncropped version, without detracting from the star of your pic. Just my own personal taste. 😊
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I appreciate that you explained your reasons for liking the first image. I definitely agree with you about the way that the character of the bare tree, which is the co-star in this image, is revealed much better in the first shot.
I prefer the first image.
You are right. Looking at the three photos, I do think the first one is the most artistic and pleasing. But generally I am just focused on the subject. So the bigger the better and probably would like #3 the best.
Thanks, Cindy. Your comments helped to confirm my initial thoughts about how folks would tend to react to the different crops. I know how I feel about a photo, but know that my perceptions are skewed because I took the photo. Feedback helps me to look at my images through different eyes.