In this tip, I’m going to show you how to fix a situation that’s probably happened to every wildlife photographer. You think think you’ve taken an absolutely amazing photograph and you rush home to load it on your computer. You pull up the image and it looks fantastic, the exposure is perfect but wait….Oh, no! You cropped way too close on one side.
You could curse your luck and trash the photo. But I’ve got a better idea. Sometimes you can actually save that photo.
If you were shooting in high-speed continuous frame advance, you may just have another shot that can save the day. Here’s an example of a photo I saved. This is an image I took of a beautiful mule deer buck in a stream in Yellowstone. The original was cropped a little too close to the top. Fortunately, my next image had a bit more space, but the deer wasn’t as sharp in that one. I transplanted the top from the not-so-good image to this one and saved the day.
Or this polar bear. My original image cropped way too close to his feet and I was able to transplant part of another image to fix it.
Keep in mind, this isn’t always going to work, but it’s surprising how often it does work. As you guys, know I’m better at showing that telling. So, I’ve made a step-by-step instructional video to show you how to change an image like this…
…into a better shot like this:
Click here to watch the complete video.
Head over to Backcountry Gallery for more photography tips and to see some great photographs of nature.
~ Steve