Friday Photo Tip | Joints
This week’s Friday photo tip is about a simple composition and cropping rule - Don’t Crop at the Joints! I’m talking about your subject here, humans or animals. When composing a photograph, the edge of your image should never cut through a joint. Whether it is an elbow, knee, ankle, or neck — it is not pleasing to the eye to have an image cut-off in this way. The better option is to crop in-between these joints: mid-calf, mid arm, etc.
While this may seem like a minor thing to be worried about in your photos, paying attention to it can really improve the way the eye perceives an image. When you see a limb cut off at the joint, the human eye imagines that it does not continue — like the limb is missing. When cropped in between joints your mind fills in the missing parts and is no longer distracted by it.
Take a peek at the examples below to see how this minor fix can really improve your pictures!
DON’T — Waist and wrist crop. Distracting, looks like hands are missing.
DO — Mid-calf crop, more pleasing to the eye.
DON’T - Ankle crop (one of my biggest pet peeves!!). Where did their feet go? It can be distracting.
DO - Mid-thigh crop is better if you want a closer shot.
DON’T — Mid-knee crop with fingers chopped off.
DO — Mid-calf crop and fingers are all visible!
Would you rather I do the cropping for you? Let’s talk about a session!