Discussion of the Week: Cropping

I think the best way of cropping it is to make sure that whatever you want to focus on is not in the center. Putting it a little to the right or left goes a long way. However, it depends on the picture. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't.

I always crop first. If I like it then, I'll size it then begin to work on it. Unless I need to clone something, but I still crop first.

Some advice is to never crop so that it's like at a joint or the base of the neck. It looks odd. Also, leave some empty space. Make your crop bigger before you resize so that it isn't crowded. A crowded picture makes it hard to focus on anything. Plus, it gives room for text or an amazing texture.

So there's my tips and stuff like that

 

-What is the best way to do it? The best way to crop for an icon is working with high quality images and pasting the images into a even sized blank base, something ranged from 200x200 pixels - 400x400 pixels. Then when you have it set up the way you like, resize it into icon size and that's your base.
-When in the icon-making process do you crop the image you're working with? I always crop the image that I'm working with in the icon-making process.
-Any other thoughts/advice you want to share Some crops do not work on every icon. You don't want the subject to be too centered, when an icon is centered it leaves no space to add text etc and while interesting crops can be done by focousing on an area of an icon it absolutely looks awful when hair is cropped out, that's a big no no in my book. but centered icons with negative space sometimes work. Focus on areas such as eyes, nose/lip section of the face and the neck, I believe those are key areas that make good crops. I've been told that I have good cropping skills, but I don't really try :lol: :shifty: I just move the picture around until it looks how I want it. I also suggest you make more than one crop with a picture, you will be surprised the possibilities of crops that can come out of just one picture. Sharpen your cropped base! You will be surprised how far sharpening a base will go

Here's some examples of my icons that I think have good cropping, but I know it differs among people:



Example
Example2
Example3
Example4
Example5
Example6
Example7
Example8
Example9
Example10

Umm, I'm never good at giving advice, so I hope that helped

 

I totally agree. Cutting off half the face take away from the composition and sometimes leaves too much negative space in the background.

 

I know everyone has different tastes and I don't know if that was in response to me saying that cropping so certain parts of the face pop out or if that was your posts but the majority of users like the way I crop when I post my icons into the fan art threads, to me cropping that way adds to the icon it doesn't take anything out for negative space allows good texture use and more room to fit in fonts etc. But cropping is a matter of personal taste and opinion, it's going to differ from person to person.

 

Cropping is probably my biggest weakness when it comes to Photoshop, so I really have no advice or anything, but I like reading everyone else's. It's helping. :lol:

 

Uhh...no I was not referring to you or your icons.

I was agreeing with Kat that cropping off a lot of the face is not what we, Kat and I, like.

 

I just remembered something. I always set my crop tool to a square with the size of 1.65x1.65. But it's always important to make sure the crop tool stays a square. Otherwise resizing it will make it stretch awkwardly and elongate what shouldn't be elongated.

Umm, I have nothing against half the face unless it's not right down the middle. That's just awkward. Also if the face just makes the icon split in half then it's a bit awkward and may be hard to pull off.

My tip is to know what you want to do before you start. If you don't know what you want, deciding on a crop is near impossible. Also if a crop doesn't work, don't force it. Sometimes a picture is just not right for cropping.