Cropping

Cropping is the removal of unwanted outer areas from a photographic or illustrated image. The process usually consists of the removal of some of the peripheral areas of an image to remove extraneous trash from the picture, to improve its framing, to change the aspect ratio, or to accentuate or isolate the subject matter from its background. Depending on the application, this can be performed on a physical photograph, artwork, or film footage, or it can be achieved digitally by using image editing software. The process of cropping is common to the photographic, film processing, broadcasting, graphic design, and printing businesses.Cropped image of Anemone coronaria, aspect ratio 1.065, in which the flower fills most of the frameThe original photo, aspect ratio 1.333, in which the flower uses only a small part of the frameCropped image of Garland chrysanthemum, aspect ratio 16:4The original photo, aspect ratio 1.333, the lower right part shows some white-colored trash and the upper right shows a dead flower, and both are unwanted objects.Figure 1:2.35:1 original image with widescreen aspect ratio, showing alternative aspect ratiosFigure 2:2.35:1 image with letterbox resized to 4:3, the whole image is visibleFigure 3:1.85:1 image with letterbox resized to 4:3. Typical 16:9 image, the outer edges of the image are not visibleFigure 4:1.55:1 image with letterbox resized to 4:3. A compromise between 16:9 and 4:3, often broadcast in the UKFigure 5:1.33:1 image without letterbox, because it is cropped to 4:3, losing much of the original Cropping is the removal of unwanted outer areas from a photographic or illustrated image. The process usually consists of the removal of some of the peripheral areas of an image to remove extraneous trash from the picture, to improve its framing, to change the aspect ratio, or to accentuate or isolate the subject matter from its background. Depending on the application, this can be performed on a physical photograph, artwork, or film footage, or it can be achieved digitally by using image editing software. The process of cropping is common to the photographic, film processing, broadcasting, graphic design, and printing businesses. In the printing, graphic design and photography industries, cropping is the removal of unwanted areas from the periphery of a photographic or illustrated image. Cropping is one of the most basic photo manipulation processes, and it is carried out to remove an unwanted object or irrelevant noise from the periphery of a photograph, to change its aspect ratio, or to improve the overall composition. In telephoto photography, most commonly in avian and aviation photography, an image is cropped to magnify the primary subject and further reduce the angle of view -- when a lens of sufficient focal length to achieve the desired magnification directly was not available. It is considered one of the few editing actions permissible in modern photojournalism along with tonal balance, color correction and sharpening. A cropping made by trimming off the top and bottom margins of a photograph, or a film, produces a view that mimics the panoramic format (in photography) or the widescreen format in cinematography and broadcasting. Neither of these formats is cropped as such, but rather they are products of highly specialized optical configurations and camera designs. Cropping in order to emphasize the subject: Cropping in order to remove unwanted details/objects: In certain circumstances, film footage may be cropped to change it from one aspect ratio to another, without stretching the image or filling the blank spaces with letterbox bars (fig. 2). Concerns about aspect ratios are a major issue in filmmaking. Rather than cropping, the cinematographer usually uses mattes to increase the latitude for alternative aspect ratios in projection and broadcast. Anamorphic optics (such as Panavision lenses) produce a full-frame, horizontally compressed image from which broadcasters and projectionists can matte a number of alternative aspect ratios without cropping relevant image detail. Without this, widescreen reproduction, especially for television broadcasting, is dependent upon a variety of soft matting techniques such as letterboxing, which involves varying degrees of image cropping (see figures 2, 3 and 4). Since the advent of widescreen television, a similar process removes large chunks from the top & bottom to make a standard 4:3 image fit a 16:9 one, losing 25 percent of the original image. Another option is a process called pillarboxing, where black bands are placed down the sides of the screen, allowing the original image to be shown full-frame within the wider aspect ratio (fig. 6). See this article for a fuller description of the problem.