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Always be aware of how much of your subject is in the frame (or not).
One of my biggest pet peeves? Seeing an amazing photo but….noticing that the subject has been cut off at a distracting portion.
How Much of your Subject is in the frame? Why Does it Matter?
Have you ever seen a photo of a person that you loved, but realized that the “full body” image was cut off at the ankles? Or in a close up image they had arms, but they were cut off at the elbow or wrist? Or missing fingers?
You don’t always have to have your subject fully in the frame – you just want to avoid chopping them in a place that may be distracting to the viewer.
Do you see how this makes a difference in the examples below?
For living subjects your primary tip is to avoid cropping at the joints. But what if you only want to include part of the arms and/or legs? Crop between the hips and knees (or between shoulder and elbow). Cropping part of the head? Be sure to include a portion of the hair…because you want the viewer to know your subject has hair LOL.
Want a more in depth explanation of this rule for portrait photography (and reasons to break the rules)? Check out this article by Jen Bilodeau Photography. She goes in to detail and even provides a chart that outlines the best places to crop on a human body.
The Rules Apply to Other Living Things
You should follow the same rule for other living things – whether it is a pet, a wild animal or an insect.
Compare these two images – do you see the difference? Lily was super active so I had trouble sometimes getting her in a good position. I loved her eyes in this image, but was annoyed that the back of her leg and part of her tail were outside of the frame. Soooo…I cropped it to bring the focus to her face and also to follow the Rule of Thirds. (We won’t talk about the pole sticking out of her head. I got into how to avoid that in Tip 5 but still clearly fail sometimes….)
What About Landscapes?
For Landscapes the rule is similar – obviously you probably won’t have joints LOL, but you do want to ensure that you exclude things that may be distracting to the viewer.
In this example it is a small change, but cropping out the tree on the left brings the focus more to the church which is the main subject.
Summary
Pay attention to the parts of your subject in frame, and be sure you don’t crop in a place that may distract from your subject or story.
Have you ever made this hiccup? If so how did you resolve? Let me know in the comments.