Transforming Photos By Cropping

Here's another photo of zebras which, besides the contrast between black and white of the birds and zebras, is rather uninspiring and frankly messy!

drinking zebra and sacred ibises - © 2016 dave harcourt. all rights reserved.

Cropping it to remove distractions and reduce the messiness is a first step to improving the image

drinking zebra - © 2016 dave harcourt. all rights reserved.

In this case its a real transformation to a much more striking and interesting image. the panorama like proportions of the photo Cleaning up the few rocks and stones, using a healing tool gets us here, which is a starting point for other work

drinking zebra - © 2016 dave harcourt. all rights reserved.

Of course it looses the sacred ibises but possibly they can make another image.

drinking sacred ibises - © 2016 dave harcourt. all rights reserved.

So to me cropping is always the first step. Of course there is a real problem of resolution because you are effectively using a lower resolution camera when you crop.

However, do not despair - if you are planning to use the image online its sure to be more than detailed enough and upsizing is much simpler and effective than the manufacturers of sharp, fast lenses would ike us to expect.