To Crop or Not to Crop?

Relative to scrapbooking, one version of the word “crop” refers to trimming and cutting photographs. We crop pictures for practical reasons as well as creative reasons. In creating a page layout, cropping is one of the first steps I take. I decide which photos to use and then I crop them down. Sometimes it’s a matter of trimming a little off of one side to center my subject or other times I might crop a photo into a particular shape. Cropping also enables us to fit more photos on a page layout. Whatever the reasoning, let go of your reservations about cropping because the results are usually much more appealing than if you would have used the original sized picture.

The practical reasons to crop are pretty obvious. You can improve the visual quality of a photo by cropping it. We can eliminate useless, busy or distracting backgrounds from a picture by trimming them out.

By doing so, the focus is on the subject of the photo and the bothersome background is gone. Another sensible reason to crop is to get as many photos as possible on a page. For example, if your are trying to show a series of events it might be helpful to crop all of the related pictures down to the same size and line them up to demonstrate the events.

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There is also the creative aspect of cropping. For example, trimming pictures into certain shapes makes for an interesting page element in a layout. Creative cropping could include cutting various sizes of circles, ovals or stars. And lately we have even seen some fabulous mosaics made out of photographs. Cutting out a silhouette is another interesting technique for your pages. When cutting a silhouette, it is very important to use a pair of sharp, fine tipped scissors.

Some tips to note:

• Don’t crop Polaroid pictures. They have chemicals inside and cropping them could destroy the photo.
  It is best to use straight edge scissors or cutters when cropping. If you would like to use a fancy scissor edge, do so when cutting the photo mat.


• If you’re still leery of cutting up your pictures, get duplicates or make reprints of your originals on your computer.


• Before you crop –consider if the background contributes to the explanation of the subject or event of the photograph.

Now that you have an idea of different cropping techniques, you must acquire the tools of the trade. I have put together a list of some of my favorite cropping tools:

Fiskars micro tip scissors - for making small detailed cuts.
Fiskars 12” paper trimmer -this is a really versatile trimmer that is ideal for cropping and trimming.
EZ2Cut templates, the Coluzzle, Creative Memories Cutting System and Fiskars Shape Cutter are all cutting tools that allow you to cut various shapes. Be advised that all of these tools require some practice before you will want to start cropping you precious photos. Practice on some scraps first!
Shape Templates - Just trace your shape and cut with scissors.