Back to Basics: How To's Chopping {Yuba City Photographer}

My husband's grandmother is known for her famous headchops. Everytime she takes a photo, everyone lovingly says "Make sure you get our heads in it Grammy!" Because, undoubtedly, she will cut someone out of the photo or just leave everyone with a lovely midsection and half a face. Not the most flattering look. She still uses film, so you don't even know that Grammy has a flattering photo of your rolls and no face until the next time you see her, in a month, once her film has been developed. She's old school and refuses to go digital. She loves her camera and I don't see her changing her ways any time soon ;)

Obviously, you the photographer know that chopping heads is a bad thing. But did you know that chopping off other parts of the body are making your photos less pleasing to the eye? Cutting off hands, fingers, parts of the chin, an ear, and feet can make your photos that much less appealling. Taking just a timy step back to get the entire hand into a photograph can make a huge difference in the way your photo is percieved. The baby didn't want to cooperate much with me today, so this example isn't perfect, but do you see how in the second one just a sliver of her chin is cut off? It sort of annoys your eye, if you think about it. Just moving back a touch, would have completely solved this issue. This is the same photo, only not annoyingly cropped, see how it's just that much more pleasing to the eye.





Just cutting a LITTLE sliver of something can be so very annoying to your viewers. My pet peeve is feet chops. Get a great photo, and see everything but their feet. And I do it all the time. half the time I won't even edit the image because it bugs me. That much. It happens a lot with group shots. You can chop them above the knee, or just below the knee, but please, not right at their feet. It's so awkward looking!