I have mixed feelings on cropping.

In some instances, I’ve framed a photo poorly, thus resulting in my cropping from the image an element of interest .

In other situations, cropping in post processing can improve a photo by eliminating or minimizing distracting, or otherwise uninteresting elements from the image area.

Consider the two photos below. Both are very similar. These were exposed seconds apart at Palmer, Mass. I’m looking toward the New England Central yard office from the parking lot of the Steaming Tender restaurant.

In the top photo, I inadvertently center the image and cropped the front of the hyrail truck parked near the yard office. In my view this is a ‘bad crop’.

In the bottom photo (below), I’ve made a conscious effort to include the hyrail truck in its entirety, but cropped bland portions of the sky and foreground to help emphasize elements of railroad interest. In my opinion, this crop improved the photo.

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