The moment it was caught in the camera.
One of my all-time favorite photographers was Henri Cartier-Bresson who by the way, said that when you crop a picture you destroy the original integrity. He also said, “The picture is good or not from the moment it was caught in the camera”.
This quote has been my mantra since I started shooting fifty-three years ago, and during these years I have never cropped one of my photos…not once! I suppose it’s because my background is not in photography but in art. Having said that, I still consider myself an artist who has changed the medium from a paintbrush to a camera; when I painted a picture, it wouldn’t make a lot of sense to crop it later…would you?
I teach online classes with the BPSOP and I also conduct my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops all over the place. In both venues, I ask photographers not to crop in front of a computer but in the camera. I once read that when you crop in front of a computer it’s a sign of a lack of discipline and sloppy technique.
One thing I have found is that when you take your time composing, you have a much better chance of getting it right the first time…as in the moment you clicked the shutter. I have seen it over and over when I’m walking along shooting with one of my fellow photographers and they bring their camera up to their eye. There’s absolutely no time spent on any thought process, they just shoot and move on; “I came, I shot, I left” will forever be your mantra.
I’m here to tell you that I’m a damn good photographer and I wouldn’t do that, so you would have to be one hell of a shooter to rely on just one shot being a ‘wall hanger’…unless, of course, you need a computer to help out. I say to each his own, and if that’s your thing then one day you’ll become a master computer artist…and not someone that can decide if a picture is bad or good from the moment it was caught in the camera.
Visit my website at www.joebaraban.com, and check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime.
JoeB
