{"id":43917,"date":"2026-03-30T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/?p=43917"},"modified":"2026-03-26T22:05:51","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T02:05:51","slug":"is-cropping-cheating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/is-cropping-cheating\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Cropping Cheating?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Looking west into the reverse curves at Christiana, Pa., I was limited by my 70\u2013200mm lens. As I envisioned the scene, making the most of it would require a longer telephoto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lacking the appropriate focal length, I opted to frame the image with the intention of allowing for a very tight crop. As Amtrak Keystone 651 raced through the curves, I made this trailing view showing Siemens ACS-64 electrics at both ends of the consist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My Nikon Z7 II\u2019s high-resolution sensor (approximately 45 megapixels) allowed me to retain considerable detail and sharpness despite the tight cropping of the original image, which was exposed at a 200mm focal length.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I ask: is this cheating?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Screen shot of the Adobe Lightroom work window that illustrates the degree of cropping of the original Nikon NEF Raw file.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Cropped version of the full frame image.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Tracking the Lights Explores Photography Daily!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lacking the appropriate focal length, I opted to frame the image with the intention of allowing for a very tight crop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43918,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[6060,10,6108,48],"tags":[4190,8594],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Screenshot-2026-03-26-at-9.36.29\u202fPM.jpg?fit=2048%2C1280","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2BVuC-bql","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43917"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43917"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43917\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43922,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43917\/revisions\/43922"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}