Mark, Because I compose "loosely," I crop everything. Depending on how I'm gonna use the final image, I have different specific crops I employ. Ever use a Scale o Graph on a polaroid? Thank-You, Mike
Pretty much every photo! I mainly try to get the horizons straight when cropping but hearing about all these overlays opens up a whole new world in terms of improving compositions! Thanks for showing this.
@@mikemitchell3889 I do the same thing Mike - shoot for the crop! I always like to give myself some extra room on the sides. No - haven't done really anything on polaroid.
I crop pretty much every image. Obviously with a Sony A7R it's easier don't loose much of information in the shot compared to other cameras, but it's the convenience of havin a 42MPX sensor :) As always it's a pleasure to watch your videos. Greetings from Italy Mark!!
You’ve hit the nail on the head with being out there and taking photos in those situations. When you get back all is calm and so you have more time to analyse the composition. I didn’t realise that the crop tool had those options.
Great to see others using the crop tool as much as I do. My heavy use of it has made me question how good my field eye actually is. But sitting in a quiet room and revisiting a site via the image does give new insight into composition corrections. Thanks so much for reminding us of the crop tools value.
Wonderful tutorial. I immediately went and cropped several of my photos (I use GIMP which also offers grid lines). Couldn’t believe the difference. Not bad’ suddenly became ‘wow!’ Thank you so much for sharing this powerful information.
my first lens ever to shooting was a 70-200... my back was against the wall the whole time but after a year shooting with it it really made me learn a lot !
Cudos again on a terrific tutorial video! Something that might also help many users is knowing what your front end process is for scouting, and identifying a landscape photo ‘subject’. Obviously, that’s a somewhat broad characterization, but more specifically what I’m looking for is knowing how do you go about identifying your ‘subject ’ in advance? Do you use a tool like The Photographers Transit, PhotoPills, The Photographer’s Ephemeris, Planit Pro, etc. to identify and layout your shot in advance (location, day/date, time of day, etc.) so that you have an effective idea of how you intend to frame the shot in advance and more importantly, how much time you might have to frame and take the shot? Or do you just wing it when you get there, or better still what you do when you scout the potential locations for the camera placement to get the framing you desire? I’m sorry for the detail requested here but but it could really help some folks who have difficulty with this part of process. Thank you in advance!!!
Hey Mark! You're doing a terrific job at this and one reason why I follow your channel is your clean, straight to the point concepts and succinct. Thank you! To answer your question: I probably crop every 90% of my photos and only with a handful ones, I make multiple copies with a few different compositions to see which photo looks better.
Great vlog Mark! You’re killing it! Keep up the great work! It’s exactly what happens too. You’re so excited what you see on the camera just to open it up on the computer and it’s like the wind stalled in your sail. The crop tool in Lightroom is the best tool in LR in my opinion. Keep on keeping on!
Broke it in and took it to Vancouver Island. It hauled most of what I wanted to take ( which was too much 😂) and it was heavier than what I wanted to hike with. It made a great on location portrait pack that fit a light stand, tripod, small light modifier, flashes, bodies and lenses. However for longer hikes I noticed it would probably be a bit much on the weight side. I love all the room and all the pockets. Sometimes not knowing the unknown we tend to overpack, I feel that's probably what I did. So it's another learning curve. Thanks again!
Congratulations on the channel, your videos are precious lessons. I have been fortunate enough to find photographers of his quality and didactics that are contributing a lot to my growth in photography. You can be sure that people like you do a great job of good photography ... congratulations
I think composition, along with light, are the most important factors in photography. And composition is often the most challenging aspect of photography IMO. Great video Mark.
Awesome video! Finally somebody who talks about photography and not about pen pressure tablet and gear! Thanks a lot for the video and keep coming up with similar content!
Light and Composition are the essentials of photography. And you are correct, one should use the Crop tool to refine their compositions. For my part, once I’ve crop my photos I continue on to highlight the elements that coincide with the chosen composition (where the lines meet) and then reduce the intensity (mainly light) of what tries to overcome it (corners and unwanted strong highlights). BTW your original photo of the road taking from above with your drone wasn’t bad - although you chose to crop it to eliminate the bottom part of the road which you thought distracting. Sometimes, a composition goes beyond what a photo shows. A composition can go beyond the initial frame - and this is a good example. We must not forget that it’s not the eye that sees but how our brain perceives vision. In this case, the brain was filling the blank by automatically completing the missing segment (of the road). Here a spiral composition that went beyond the frame would have shown that the focus point would have been the missing segment - which usually you want to avoid. But here, not only do you have an outward point (exit of the road) but your brain creates an entry one to come back within the frame (back to the road). Many painters have use that technique, mainly cutting down mountain roads in such a way for you to progress out of the frame to then return into it. Nice video!
I appreciate the way you have selected a topic, taken examples and explained it differently to others on RUclips. Absolutely brilliant. This video was convincing enough for me to hit the subscribe button. All the best for your channel
Thus far two tuts under my belt with you Mark, and both enjoyable, educational and delivered at a even pace.. I would like to add one more element in the mix to the crop, and that's flopping it, as an old timer friend calls it, or as we call it today, flipping your image either horizontal or vertical depending on the image. Keeping in mind we read from left to right horizontally or from top down vertically..and then the next step, shaping your light to draw the viewer to the high light of the image ..
I've known about the rule of thirds forever, but I've been using it wrong. My photography/journalism teacher had just taught us everything should be like even throughout. Really appreciate the new knowledge about putting interest in the intersections!
Wow! I am a very fierce cropper.. sometimes I crop to just one fourth of the image but never considered using these overlays! Fantastic video Mark 😍 Thank u for giving such awesome content ❤️
Started using the various crop grids and they have made a difference. I trust my compositional eye in the field but I can already see that in processing my images I can get my final image to be much stronger. Nice one Mark
When I first started, every video I watched said to fill the frame. So I started doing that. That worked great until....I got ready toy start printing my pictures to hang on the wall. When you shoot in 3:2 and you want to print an 8x10 you are going to have to crop something out and it might ruin your composition. Sup I learned to zoom out and not fill the frame. Now I can crop exactly where I need to go either post on social media or to print.
Great tutorial! I always have shot with a the rule of thirds for my landscapes, but using this crop tool, I've gone back and looked at a lot of my work and found ways to refine some of them. I will be using this feature a little more than before.
A very informative video. Quite an awesome line of tips & hints. Didn't know those were the compositional options when using the crop overlay. Nice stuff! Will try these soon.
You don't need 61 Mpixels. 42 Mpixels is fine for cropping. Got to be something more to layout $3500 for a camera when the last camera was 2 years ago. I still have my 4 x 5 camera made in 1960s. I crop that scan a lot.
Another well delivered video Mark and I totally appreciate your honesty regarding the crop tool. Yes I use it and I am pretty sure all those "pros" out there that say they get it right in the camera use it too. A couple years ago I bought one of those negative scanners and started scanning/copying my images from negatives to my hard-drive. Then I would take those scans and post-process them in Lightroom and yeah... I would crop them too. Now many of these negatives are from my military days from the 80s and they are a bit scratched up, so not only did I crop them, I would also clean up the scratches and then I converted most into B&W images. ~Ron
Been using Lightroom for about 2 years and always used the crop tool for my images. I did not know about the overlays, thanks Mark. I've used the rule of thirds for in camera composition for the last 40 years, but there's always room for improvement.
PS is so complex that is easy to forget some of its features and I had completely forgotten about the crop toll overlays, thanks for the reminder, I shall try to make more use of them.
Great demo of how to play around with the different grid overlays. Even if I don't ultimately crop, I always play around with images to make sure the original composition still works for me, like looking at the image with fresh eyes.
Awesome content Mark! This video was highly informative. Actually would love to see more of your thoughts on composition. Thanks for your great content!
I'm happy to know I'm not alone in doing my best composition in post. I've found the best I can do in the field is changing perspective, so I like to shoot from other-than eyeball height -- in particular, low. It's amazing how much different a shot looks taken from the ground, and how much more foreground interest this perspective avails us. I too get the most from my 42MP. As much as you crop, you might consider upgrading to the 61MP mark iv. Thanks for another great video. I feel a lot better now about my needing to drop so much in post.
Until now I used the rule of thirds only. With your illustration I learned something... I will check the other rules systematically in the future! So far I used the crop tool as you did before... very helpful video!
I use the crop tool in about 90% of my images and almost constantly. It is a great tool and as you mentioned, you can go back to an image at a later date and re-style your work so that it becomes more pleasing to the eye
Thanks Mark! I recently flew to Bend Oregon from Seattle and captured some really cool highway shots (like yours). Your composition tips really helped me explore different techniques to give the images even more pzazz!
Yeah, that's the issue with photographing Jordan Pond in Acadia National Park as you showed in the early part of the video. When shooting from the shore toward the twin peaks in the distance (they're called The Bubbles for those not familiar with the park) the rocks add a great feeling of depth, but you do have to decide where to crop in that foreground. BTW I appreciate the material you presented--nicely done.
Mark Denny... thank you for these videos, excellent material. Question, you mention using your drone to photograph that road in Maui (great pic!).... what drone set up do you use (equipment)? Didn't see it listed and I'm thinking of getting one to add to my arsenal of tools.
This video came up in my feed today. Great information. You are very easy to listen to. Subscribed because you’ve motivated me to get my gear out and do what I love
Excellent video and some great information. I hate it when I hear people say "you have to get it right in camera" and "you waste pixels when you crop". Yes, getting it right when you shoot is fantastic but it's not a hard and fast LAW. And yes, you do waste some pixels but with the resolution of cameras today, you aren't losing that much (and we're not talking about only using 10% of the frame). I sometimes also shoot a scene with a different ratio (than the native 3:2) and since my camera doesn't allow me to change it, crop is the only method. Again, great information as I didn't know about some of those crop overlays. Take care.
Thanks again for a well produced and informative video. I've used LR for years and was not aware of the overlays other than the rule of thirds. I especially appreciate that you showed us your uncropped images and how you got to your final version. I have felt the disappointment that you described when I get home and look at my frames on a larger screen. Even through I've been cropping for years, I can see the benefits of the diagonal and triangle overlays to fine tune my pictures. Thank you!
Thanks for suggestions Mark,often we're always "fixed" on rule of thirds , your interesting video reminded me that composition may be different.Thumbs up
Mark great video! Human brains are quite adept at pattern recognition, so I think when we compose an image that's what we are doing. The crop tool basically let's you refine that composition to a more exacting point resulting in a more pleasing image. Loves the video! Keep up the good work!
Mark, your tutorials are quite enjoyable and pleasant to watch, as you seem so sincere in how you share what you have learned with others -- and the information is very helpful as well. Thank you for your contribution to the community. :)
This was a perfectly timed topic for me since I just started working more with crops after learning about the crop short cut from your video a few weeks ago. I’m going to play with it more today. May I also make a suggestion for a future topic? Matching the color on your screen to the color of a printer be it your home printer or a commercial printer. I’ve printed a few images that just didn’t have the same color on paper that I did on the screen. Thanks.
I’m mostly shooting on film these days. I like to get the right perspective to my eye balls first, before I look thru a viewfinder. I then compose the shot to the best of my ability. If I like it, good if not, the image is scrapped. Pretty straight forward. I don’t have 40+ megapixels to work with, I like the challenge. And I’m not trying to sound pretentious in any way. Nor am I anti digital. I have a Sony A99II. It’s great, I’m just in love with film right now. This is some great advice that I’ll be doing when I get back to the 21st century, haha!
I've read somewhere that shapes found within nature follow rules similar to the ratios that make up these compositional guidelines. The golden spiral of a snail is an example. So it makes sense then that photographs of things we find visually pleasing follow or compliment these rules found in nature.
@@MarkDenneyPhoto I have a book called 'Nature's Chaos" which is an absolute verification of this - whether in full scale or macro photography examples. Check it out if you get the chance.
Similar to photographing a group of objects whether it be in nature or man made. Usually an odd number of objects just looks right to the eye while an even number doesn't.
Thank you very much Mark... i've been making a serious mistake on all my photos. I've very rarely cropped my photos, simply because I didn't have the knowledge and never looked closely enough at my composition... You have woken this old Bloke up today and I will begin my new editing style with some crop ideas.. Thanks Mate.. Be safe.. Neville J.... I seem to be similar to a comment from below my own,, I'm afraid of the crop tool because I've never paid attention to using it or learning more about it...
Mark, Another very well done video. You've provided some much information in a short time without overwhelming the viewer. Your use of examples is so very well done. The use of sound effects at the beginning and the cut away to the sunrise photo at the beginning is helps to keep interest in watching. I don't really need them since I watch your videos all the way through, but I thought they enhanced the video production. My cropping percentage, gonna guess it's in the 99%, and I'll be using the LR overlays more often.
As soon as I saw the old school Gameboy on your desk I totally zoned out and started looking on eBay for Gameboy games. Now I have to re-watch the video.
What a useful tip; cycling through the overlays to find the best "formal" composition that works with the image, then cropping to fine-tune and make best use of that compositional tool! Thanks very much.
I never knew about using the rule of thirds beyond the typical grid pattern. Those were learned in my college courses back in the mid 80s. But, back then we didn’t have such incredible editing software as today so we had to make the shot with the grid in mind. Your video is enlightening. I’ve subscribed! Also, I like that you take notice of each comment, unlike many other videos I’ve watched from years ago. Kudos for that!
I'd like to thank you for creating this video. I was looking for something else when your title drew me to you instead. Since buying my first digital camera about 10 years ago I have found that I need to use the crop tool on most of my photos and have always felt that I must be getting worse at composing with a digital camera than during all the years when I only had film cameras. I do tend to leave more around the edges of the frame today to allow for cropping because I now have to use my left eye to frame the scene in the viewfinder (I still prefer the viewfinder to the screen for stability) as my right eye is less accurate in focusing (I do miss the parallel lines or the diamond screens of the film cameras though). Your talk has given me more confidence that it is not a matter of getting worse more a matter that I'm able to make adjustments that with film, being processed by someone else, I had no additional control over. I only use Photoshop Elements 5 for my processing, which is very basic I'm afraid to say. I haven't progressed to things like layers and masks yet, that is to come, but now I've seen this video and your style of teaching that makes it easy for me to understand I will be checking out your other work. Thank you so much.
Roughly what percent of your photos do you apply a crop to? I'm at about 99.4%!
Mark,
Because I compose "loosely," I crop everything. Depending on how I'm gonna use the final image, I have different specific crops I employ.
Ever use a Scale o Graph on a polaroid?
Thank-You,
Mike
Pretty much every photo! I mainly try to get the horizons straight when cropping but hearing about all these overlays opens up a whole new world in terms of improving compositions! Thanks for showing this.
@@mikemitchell3889 I do the same thing Mike - shoot for the crop! I always like to give myself some extra room on the sides. No - haven't done really anything on polaroid.
@@DJustmusicMusic Glad to do it Chris - happy to hear it was helpful!
I crop pretty much every image. Obviously with a Sony A7R it's easier don't loose much of information in the shot compared to other cameras, but it's the convenience of havin a 42MPX sensor :) As always it's a pleasure to watch your videos. Greetings from Italy Mark!!
I love the fact that you don't have to talk like the coolest guy on earth in order to make a really educational and yet fun video to watch. Thank you
Thanks Bruno! I'm most certainly not the coolest guy anywhere:)
Mark crying while responding 😂
The honesty and humility on your own journey and process truly shine through.
You’ve hit the nail on the head with being out there and taking photos in those situations. When you get back all is calm and so you have more time to analyse the composition. I didn’t realise that the crop tool had those options.
Why do people give thumbs down to Mark's videos? He is one of the few photographers who gives his heart to his followers. Shame on you .
TheRedrusso Always appreciate the support friend🙌
Gosh, I'm loving your video series! So much real talk, so much practical advice. Yay!
Great to see others using the crop tool as much as I do. My heavy use of it has made me question how good my field eye actually is. But sitting in a quiet room and revisiting a site via the image does give new insight into composition corrections. Thanks so much for reminding us of the crop tools value.
Glad to do it John! Thanks for watching it!
Thanks for putting out your work! It's very educational and pleasant to watch and listen! Keep up the good work Mark!
The Golden Ratio on that image just....works.
Fantastic tutorial.
a.ramappa Many thanks!
One of the absolutely best Lightroom videos on youtube! Thank you and congratulations!!
Wonderful tutorial. I immediately went and cropped several of my photos (I use GIMP which also offers grid lines). Couldn’t believe the difference. Not bad’ suddenly became ‘wow!’ Thank you so much for sharing this powerful information.
P AR Glad to do it and many thanks to you for watching it!
my first lens ever to shooting was a 70-200... my back was against the wall the whole time but after a year shooting with it it really made me learn a lot !
just getting into photography and have watched hours of youtubes the last few days your vids are among the best. thanks dude.
Admin Many thanks - really appreciate it!
Cudos again on a terrific tutorial video! Something that might also help many users is knowing what your front end process is for scouting, and identifying a landscape photo ‘subject’. Obviously, that’s a somewhat broad characterization, but more specifically what I’m looking for is knowing how do you go about identifying your ‘subject ’ in advance? Do you use a tool like The Photographers Transit, PhotoPills, The Photographer’s Ephemeris, Planit Pro, etc. to identify and layout your shot in advance (location, day/date, time of day, etc.) so that you have an effective idea of how you intend to frame the shot in advance and more importantly, how much time you might have to frame and take the shot? Or do you just wing it when you get there, or better still what you do when you scout the potential locations for the camera placement to get the framing you desire? I’m sorry for the detail requested here but but it could really help some folks who have difficulty with this part of process. Thank you in advance!!!
Definitely one of your most important videos IMO. I usually am really confident with an image when it fits more than one crop grid.
Thanks Moises! That means a lot!
That’s a good point. You can always test fit more than one grid.
Omg, I never knew you could use the crop tool in such a way. Thank you for showing me how to use it😊
Hey Mark! You're doing a terrific job at this and one reason why I follow your channel is your clean, straight to the point concepts and succinct. Thank you!
To answer your question: I probably crop every 90% of my photos and only with a handful ones, I make multiple copies with a few different compositions to see which photo looks better.
Arindam Chanda Really appreciate it friend - thank you🙌
Great vlog Mark! You’re killing it! Keep up the great work! It’s exactly what happens too. You’re so excited what you see on the camera just to open it up on the computer and it’s like the wind stalled in your sail. The crop tool in Lightroom is the best tool in LR in my opinion. Keep on keeping on!
Chuck Hultberg Thank ya buddy! How’s the bag workin out for you?
Broke it in and took it to Vancouver Island. It hauled most of what I wanted to take ( which was too much 😂) and it was heavier than what I wanted to hike with. It made a great on location portrait pack that fit a light stand, tripod, small light modifier, flashes, bodies and lenses. However for longer hikes I noticed it would probably be a bit much on the weight side. I love all the room and all the pockets. Sometimes not knowing the unknown we tend to overpack, I feel that's probably what I did. So it's another learning curve. Thanks again!
Congratulations on the channel, your videos are precious lessons. I have been fortunate enough to find photographers of his quality and didactics that are contributing a lot to my growth in photography. You can be sure that people like you do a great job of good photography ... congratulations
I think composition, along with light, are the most important factors in photography. And composition is often the most challenging aspect of photography IMO.
Great video Mark.
Much appreciated Leandro!
Awesome video! Finally somebody who talks about photography and not about pen pressure tablet and gear! Thanks a lot for the video and keep coming up with similar content!
Miloš Grujić Haha! Thanks Milos!
Light and Composition are the essentials of photography. And you are correct, one should use the Crop tool to refine their compositions. For my part, once I’ve crop my photos I continue on to highlight the elements that coincide with the chosen composition (where the lines meet) and then reduce the intensity (mainly light) of what tries to overcome it (corners and unwanted strong highlights).
BTW your original photo of the road taking from above with your drone wasn’t bad - although you chose to crop it to eliminate the bottom part of the road which you thought distracting. Sometimes, a composition goes beyond what a photo shows. A composition can go beyond the initial frame - and this is a good example. We must not forget that it’s not the eye that sees but how our brain perceives vision. In this case, the brain was filling the blank by automatically completing the missing segment (of the road). Here a spiral composition that went beyond the frame would have shown that the focus point would have been the missing segment - which usually you want to avoid. But here, not only do you have an outward point (exit of the road) but your brain creates an entry one to come back within the frame (back to the road). Many painters have use that technique, mainly cutting down mountain roads in such a way for you to progress out of the frame to then return into it.
Nice video!
Great video Mark, I love the way you explain using examples.
Great tut, Mark. Thanks!
Dg Visual Much appreciated- thank you!
So overlooked, yet effective. Now I'm re-doing photos!
Pam Walz Thanks for watching Pam!
Love watching all your videos. goes directly right to the point...
Amocha Sagolsem Thanks so much!
Great video !! brilliantly explained... the composition techniques... Your photographs and locations are too good !!!
I appreciate the way you have selected a topic, taken examples and explained it differently to others on RUclips. Absolutely brilliant. This video was convincing enough for me to hit the subscribe button. All the best for your channel
Thanks so much for subscribing - very much appreciate that!
Another great video Mark, presented in an interesting way using good examples of your pictures. Thank you
Robert Harrison Thank YOU Robert!
Great video. I really like the way you explain photographic theory using practical examples
Aaron Haußmann Thanks Aaron! Glad you enjoyed it👍
Thus far two tuts under my belt with you Mark, and both enjoyable, educational and delivered at a even pace.. I would like to add one more element in the mix to the crop, and that's flopping it, as an old timer friend calls it, or as we call it today, flipping your image either horizontal or vertical depending on the image. Keeping in mind we read from left to right horizontally or from top down vertically..and then the next step, shaping your light to draw the viewer to the high light of the image ..
I've known about the rule of thirds forever, but I've been using it wrong. My photography/journalism teacher had just taught us everything should be like even throughout. Really appreciate the new knowledge about putting interest in the intersections!
Amills50 Glad to hear the video helped!
Wow! I am a very fierce cropper.. sometimes I crop to just one fourth of the image but never considered using these overlays! Fantastic video Mark 😍 Thank u for giving such awesome content ❤️
Thanks Raja! Really appreciate that friend!
good stuff mark, really helped me out finding new compositions in older photos. keep it up
Started using the various crop grids and they have made a difference. I trust my compositional eye in the field but I can already see that in processing my images I can get my final image to be much stronger. Nice one Mark
When I first started, every video I watched said to fill the frame. So I started doing that. That worked great until....I got ready toy start printing my pictures to hang on the wall. When you shoot in 3:2 and you want to print an 8x10 you are going to have to crop something out and it might ruin your composition. Sup I learned to zoom out and not fill the frame. Now I can crop exactly where I need to go either post on social media or to print.
I just found your channel and I love it! You deserve so much more subscribers.
Great tutorial! I always have shot with a the rule of thirds for my landscapes, but using this crop tool, I've gone back and looked at a lot of my work and found ways to refine some of them. I will be using this feature a little more than before.
Thank ya Buddy!
A very informative video. Quite an awesome line of tips & hints. Didn't know those were the compositional options when using the crop overlay. Nice stuff! Will try these soon.
Didn’t know about the different crop overlays! Thanks for great video
My pleasure! Thanks for watching it!
Don't use them.
Thank you so much Mark, your tips and explanations are extraordinary, look forward to your future tips.
F Farag Glad to do it and great hearing that you enjoy them as well!
I am always afraid to crop too much, your video makes me that I should perhaps rethink this. Thanks
Thanks for watching Denis! Great to hear the video was helpful!
Another great video Mark. This is where the A7riv will come into it’s own.😀👍👌
Much appreciated - thank you!
You don't need 61 Mpixels. 42 Mpixels is fine for cropping. Got to be something more to layout $3500 for a camera when the last camera was 2 years ago. I still have my 4 x 5 camera made in 1960s. I crop that scan a lot.
Thank you! Really enjoyed you sharing your thought process on how you cropped your photos.
kapurar Glad you enjoyed it👍
Another well delivered video Mark and I totally appreciate your honesty regarding the crop tool. Yes I use it and I am pretty sure all those "pros" out there that say they get it right in the camera use it too. A couple years ago I bought one of those negative scanners and started scanning/copying my images from negatives to my hard-drive. Then I would take those scans and post-process them in Lightroom and yeah... I would crop them too. Now many of these negatives are from my military days from the 80s and they are a bit scratched up, so not only did I crop them, I would also clean up the scratches and then I converted most into B&W images. ~Ron
I used to do the same thing with older prints - it's actually pretty fun to see how much you can clean them up digitally!
Been using Lightroom for about 2 years and always used the crop tool for my images. I did not know about the overlays, thanks Mark. I've used the rule of thirds for in camera composition for the last 40 years, but there's always room for improvement.
His palms are sweaty, speed's weak, ISO heavy / he keeps forgetting to check file quality settings /
Hahaha!#truth
LOL!
Or in the old rangefinder camera days, the lens cap....
Eminem of photography lol
nice
PS is so complex that is easy to forget some of its features and I had completely forgotten about the crop toll overlays, thanks for the reminder, I shall try to make more use of them.
Thanks for watching Sid - happy to hear the video was helpful!
Great demo of how to play around with the different grid overlays. Even if I don't ultimately crop, I always play around with images to make sure the original composition still works for me, like looking at the image with fresh eyes.
grat2010 Thank you!
Thanks Mark, this video is one that I have been waiting for, excelleent
Loved this tutorial simple easy to follow and makes sense Thanks Mark
Great to hear - thanks Mark!
A very helpful tutorial, Mark. Thanks for sharing.
Jane Andrew I’m glad you think so - thanks so much Jane!
Awesome content Mark! This video was highly informative. Actually would love to see more of your thoughts on composition. Thanks for your great content!
Anders Askasen Thanks Anders!
I'm happy to know I'm not alone in doing my best composition in post. I've found the best I can do in the field is changing perspective, so I like to shoot from other-than eyeball height -- in particular, low. It's amazing how much different a shot looks taken from the ground, and how much more foreground interest this perspective avails us.
I too get the most from my 42MP. As much as you crop, you might consider upgrading to the 61MP mark iv.
Thanks for another great video. I feel a lot better now about my needing to drop so much in post.
Glad to hear you enjoyed it! Camera's today come with so much resolution it's makes it easier than ever to crop your photos - it's great!
Mark this video was awesome and jam packed with wonderful advice for beginners like me. Thanks!!!!!
Awesome Ben! Music to my ears - Thanks buddy!
Ben Williams the crop too is so damn important! Happy shooting!
Great video Mark! The going back in time reference, along with the classic gameboy and a Flip is a nice touch.
Thanks Andy! You're the first to mention the Flip - remember those things?!? Man tech has come a long way.
The Flip was the greatest before cell phone video was a thing, Many a foolery was captured with mine in my youth.
Until now I used the rule of thirds only. With your illustration I learned something... I will check the other rules systematically in the future! So far I used the crop tool as you did before... very helpful video!
Great to hear Stefan - thank you!
omg i used LR for HOURS and i never knew about the crop grid overlay :o!! thank you so much for this
Nice work as always, informative and entertaining.
dragondrummer33 Much appreciated - thank ya!
I use the crop tool in about 90% of my images and almost constantly. It is a great tool and as you mentioned, you can go back to an image at a later date and re-style your work so that it becomes more pleasing to the eye
Thanks Mark! I recently flew to Bend Oregon from Seattle and captured some really cool highway shots (like yours). Your composition tips really helped me explore different techniques to give the images even more pzazz!
Another great video Mark. I'm a regular follower of your work and they surely help me to improve my landscape photography. Thanks a lot :)
That's great to hear - thanks for letting me know:)
Great video Mark! Really very helpful. Thanks.
Daniel Bastos Thanks Daniel!
Yeah, that's the issue with photographing Jordan Pond in Acadia National Park as you showed in the early part of the video. When shooting from the shore toward the twin peaks in the distance (they're called The Bubbles for those not familiar with the park) the rocks add a great feeling of depth, but you do have to decide where to crop in that foreground. BTW I appreciate the material you presented--nicely done.
I am learning a lot of things with your classes!! Great video!
Fabiano Bergoch Monteiro Sambati That’s great to hear! Thank you.
So helpful, Mark. As always.
Jay Cowen Thanks Jay!
excellent presentation with powerful examples. Thank you.
Thank you for taking the time to make such great and informative videos. I've been learning so much and can't tell you how much I appreciate it!
Mina Chung Thanks for taking the time to let me know - I really appreciate it👍
As always, great advice. I learn something with every video of yours that I watch. Thank you!
Great to hear Jason! Thanks man!
Definitely one of the most educational landscape artists out there!
Mark Denny... thank you for these videos, excellent material. Question, you mention using your drone to photograph that road in Maui (great pic!).... what drone set up do you use (equipment)? Didn't see it listed and I'm thinking of getting one to add to my arsenal of tools.
Excellent video and tips thanks Mark - really clear and great communication style - thanks!
Graham Gall Many thanks Graham!!
This video came up in my feed today. Great information. You are very easy to listen to. Subscribed because you’ve motivated me to get my gear out and do what I love
Steven Crowley Photography Awesome! Many thanks Steven!
I never knew about these overlays in LR. Loved the info and your video. Thanks.
mzeeshan Thanks so much!
Hi Mark. This is really useful. Many thanks for sharing.
Thanks Tim! Glad to hear it was helpful.
Many compositions discussed in this video are new to me. Good video.
Thank ya Ravi - glad to hear the video was helpful!
@@MarkDenneyPhoto Definitely sir. I struggled lot in composition. This video gives some new ideas. Thank you.
Excellent video and some great information. I hate it when I hear people say "you have to get it right in camera" and "you waste pixels when you crop". Yes, getting it right when you shoot is fantastic but it's not a hard and fast LAW. And yes, you do waste some pixels but with the resolution of cameras today, you aren't losing that much (and we're not talking about only using 10% of the frame). I sometimes also shoot a scene with a different ratio (than the native 3:2) and since my camera doesn't allow me to change it, crop is the only method. Again, great information as I didn't know about some of those crop overlays. Take care.
Craig Allen Thanks Craig - it’s great to hear the video was helpful!
Enlightening! More tools to add to the bag of tricks. 👍👍
Thank YOU!
Thanks again for a well produced and informative video. I've used LR for years and was not aware of the overlays other than the rule of thirds. I especially appreciate that you showed us your uncropped images and how you got to your final version. I have felt the disappointment that you described when I get home and look at my frames on a larger screen. Even through I've been cropping for years, I can see the benefits of the diagonal and triangle overlays to fine tune my pictures. Thank you!
Thanks Michael! Glad to hear you enjoyed the video!
Thanks for suggestions Mark,often we're always "fixed" on rule of thirds , your interesting video reminded me that composition may be different.Thumbs up
ggsxr1000 Thanks so much!!
Great video - can't believe that I haven't experimented with these different crop tools before.
DSLR Life - Nigel Bailey Thanks so much!
Learned something new today. Great vid as always.
Mark great video! Human brains are quite adept at pattern recognition, so I think when we compose an image that's what we are doing. The crop tool basically let's you refine that composition to a more exacting point resulting in a more pleasing image. Loves the video! Keep up the good work!
Brilliant video, aa always you teach me something new. I had no idea about those crop overlays 😂. Thank you.
Mark, your tutorials are quite enjoyable and pleasant to watch, as you seem so sincere in how you share what you have learned with others -- and the information is very helpful as well. Thank you for your contribution to the community. :)
Lamont Gilliland Many thanks Lamont - I really appreciate that!
Thanks Mark, learnt a lot from this. Big hi from Australia!
The JW Channel Thanks so much!!
Nice simple straight forward explanation.
This was a perfectly timed topic for me since I just started working more with crops after learning about the crop short cut from your video a few weeks ago. I’m going to play with it more today.
May I also make a suggestion for a future topic? Matching the color on your screen to the color of a printer be it your home printer or a commercial printer. I’ve printed a few images that just didn’t have the same color on paper that I did on the screen.
Thanks.
I’m mostly shooting on film these days. I like to get the right perspective to my eye balls first, before I look thru a viewfinder. I then compose the shot to the best of my ability. If I like it, good if not, the image is scrapped. Pretty straight forward. I don’t have 40+ megapixels to work with, I like the challenge. And I’m not trying to sound pretentious in any way. Nor am I anti digital. I have a Sony A99II. It’s great, I’m just in love with film right now. This is some great advice that I’ll be doing when I get back to the 21st century, haha!
Another great video Mark! I only recently learned about the other crop layouts and am really excited to start using them.
Thanks David!
Really helpful video Mark! Thanks! Keep up the great content!
Thanks Steve - great to hear you enjoyed it!
I've read somewhere that shapes found within nature follow rules similar to the ratios that make up these compositional guidelines. The golden spiral of a snail is an example. So it makes sense then that photographs of things we find visually pleasing follow or compliment these rules found in nature.
Oliver Saxon the Fibonacci sequence is found in music, nature, and photography. It works!
You're exactly right Oliver.
@@MarkDenneyPhoto I have a book called 'Nature's Chaos" which is an absolute verification of this - whether in full scale or macro photography examples. Check it out if you get the chance.
Similar to photographing a group of objects whether it be in nature or man made. Usually an odd number of objects just looks right to the eye while an even number doesn't.
It's a myth.
Thank you very much Mark... i've been making a serious mistake on all my photos. I've very rarely cropped my photos, simply because I didn't have the knowledge and never looked closely enough at my composition... You have woken this old Bloke up today and I will begin my new editing style with some crop ideas.. Thanks Mate.. Be safe.. Neville J.... I seem to be similar to a comment from below my own,, I'm afraid of the crop tool because I've never paid attention to using it or learning more about it...
My pleasure Neville! Happy to hear the video gave you some new ideas to test!
Mark, Another very well done video. You've provided some much information in a short time without overwhelming the viewer. Your use of examples is so very well done. The use of sound effects at the beginning and the cut away to the sunrise photo at the beginning is helps to keep interest in watching. I don't really need them since I watch your videos all the way through, but I thought they enhanced the video production. My cropping percentage, gonna guess it's in the 99%, and I'll be using the LR overlays more often.
Love the feedback - really does help with future videos, thank you!
As soon as I saw the old school Gameboy on your desk I totally zoned out and started looking on eBay for Gameboy games. Now I have to re-watch the video.
Mike Hines Haha! Those were the days!
What a useful tip; cycling through the overlays to find the best "formal" composition that works with the image, then cropping to fine-tune and make best use of that compositional tool! Thanks very much.
Mark Janes Thanks Mark! Great to hear the video was helpful👍
Thanks Mark didn't know about the crop overlay toggle, will put that to use now. Thanks. 👌
This video has helped me tremendously to understand composition. Thank You
Cordeiro Woodworks That’s great to hear - happy it was helpful!
I never knew about using the rule of thirds beyond the typical grid pattern. Those were learned in my college courses back in the mid 80s. But, back then we didn’t have such incredible editing software as today so we had to make the shot with the grid in mind. Your video is enlightening. I’ve subscribed!
Also, I like that you take notice of each comment, unlike many other videos I’ve watched from years ago. Kudos for that!
Awesome! Thanks for subscribing and watching the video Dennis!
I'd like to thank you for creating this video. I was looking for something else when your title drew me to you instead. Since buying my first digital camera about 10 years ago I have found that I need to use the crop tool on most of my photos and have always felt that I must be getting worse at composing with a digital camera than during all the years when I only had film cameras. I do tend to leave more around the edges of the frame today to allow for cropping because I now have to use my left eye to frame the scene in the viewfinder (I still prefer the viewfinder to the screen for stability) as my right eye is less accurate in focusing (I do miss the parallel lines or the diamond screens of the film cameras though). Your talk has given me more confidence that it is not a matter of getting worse more a matter that I'm able to make adjustments that with film, being processed by someone else, I had no additional control over. I only use Photoshop Elements 5 for my processing, which is very basic I'm afraid to say. I haven't
progressed to things like layers and masks yet, that is to come, but now I've seen this video and your style of teaching that makes it easy for me to understand I will be checking out your other work. Thank you so much.
This has changed my perspective on cropping
I am a first time viewer, great video. Thank you for your time and expertise. I did subscribe, looking forward to the next one.
Jim Bembinster Awesome to hear! Thanks Jim!