The Effect of Cropping on an Image’s Ratio (Will the Cropped Image fill the screen?)

[Rednewt74]

Landscape or Portrait? Or maybe somewhere in between

There have been several posts recently about guides preferences regarding shooting in portrait mode (ratio 9:16) vs landscape mode (ratio 16:9). It began here in the General-Discussion/Discussion-on-the-Local-Guides-2023-Star-Photos-Videos when @tony_b was having trouble because his camera was set to a 1:1 ratio (Square images are used in Instagram and TicTok). Several guides started discussing portrait vs landscape preferences: (@Rednewt74, @TerryPG, @MattGatlin , his reply, AdamGT, AdamGT’s reply)

In his post, Landscape or Portrait? , @AdamGT raised the question of "When to use portrait vs landscape when taking photos, especially as it relates to photos for Google Maps.

I’m not addressing that discussion here.

For those of you guides who crop their images before posting them, I want to address:

The Effect of Cropping on an Image’s Ratio (Will the Cropped Image fill the screen?)

Your choice about whether to crop in a free ratio or a fixed ratio, will depend on what you want to achieve by cropping the image. My goal is to explain how each works so that you can get the final image you are seeking.

Note: This discussion of cropping applies to both photos and videos .

And cropping will reduce the resolution of the image; if you crop regularly shoot in maximum photo quality and 4k video to avoid this issue.

When we take a photo or video with our phone it is taken in whatever ratio we have set as default in the camera app; and for most of us this is 16:9 because that is the ratio of the phone’s screen. So an image fills our screen if the screen is in same orientation as when the image was taken.

But this can change if we crop the image. On Android devices (maybe someone else can speak to iPhones), when cropping an image (photo or video) Google photos’ default ratio mode is “free”.

This means you can trim the image on one side or the other (width) without changing the top or bottom. This is helpful when you want to

• center something in the image
• remove a distracting element from one of the edges
• Generally improve the composition of the image.

Cropping in free mode will result in a cropped image that will usually no longer fill the screen.

Many times you will choose this method because it gives you the most flexibility for improving the framing and composition of your image; the trade off is the image will not fill the screen completely.

When cropping you have the option to choose a fixed ratio instead of a “free” ratio (see photo to right or below).

If you click on original or one of the other items, then the height and width are locked together to keep the ratio fixed. When in this mode dragging on the edge of the image will change the width and height at the same time.

If you choose “original” then the cropped image will still completely fill the screen

Note: if you tap a fixed ratio a second time it allows you to reverse the ratio. So, for example, the cropped image ratio will go from 16:9 (landscape) to 9:16 (portrait).

The combined screenshot below shows (from left to right):

1. portrait image (cropped using 9:16 ratio)
2. portrait image (cropped using free ratio)
3. portrait image (no cropping)

You can even crop this portrait (9:16) image to a full landscape image (16:9)

To see additional screenshots and examples of cropping, look in this Album.

[PrasadVR]

Thank you @Rednewt74 , for the clear, step-by-step visual guide on cropping photos using various settings. It is really helpful.

[tony_b]

Very interesting @Rednewt74 , but I’d never thought of it at this level at all.

I don’t use Google Photos. All my cropping is done directly in the Photos App on my Samsung phone. I just trim the sides and the bottom or top until I’m happy with what I see.

Somehow there doesn’t seem to be an option to do crop in Fixed ratio as you’re suggesting. If you or anyone else can point me to it I’d be thankful.

[JustJake]

Thank you @Rednewt74 ! I learned something new! I’d only seen the ratios when editing on the Photos web page, but you don’t get all the cool tools from the App. I purchased a Chromebook Plus for my mother, and it supposedly lets you act as if you’re using the mobile version of Photos on a bigger laptop. I’ll need to snag it from her to test.

[Rednewt74]

@JustJake ,

All these tools are in your Pixel 8. I have a Chromebook and you do get most of the cool tools (HDR+ adjustment, enhance, filters, etc), but the interface is really different. I didn’t see a sharpen or noise reduction setting on my Chromebook, but I may have missed them. I used them both on my weekly photos I just posted.

[Rednewt74]

@tony_b ,

Thanks for your questions.

There are two reasons to try and crop in a fixed ratio. One, is so that the final image fills the screen or frame. The second is if you want to print the image, then it will the correct proportions for the standard sizes of photo paper.

To be honest, for Google Maps, I usually use the free ratio mode, because I am more concerned about the composition and framing of the image, than whether it fills a phone’s screen completely. Since ratios when cropping aren’t talked about a lot in digital photography (because they are so rarely printed), I really just wanted to make people aware of the difference. Especially if they can’t understand why their cropped image doesn’t fill the frame.

As to Samsung I have no experience, but you could look at these:

• A Samsung article on Cropping, a very useful tool in photography (they don’t specify a model)
• YouTube video: Galaxy S20/S20+: How to Crop a Picture With a Predefined Size

Becareful of articles on resizing a photo- this is not cropping, but reducing the file size of the image which will reduce its size but also its resolution.

[AZ_2021]

Amazing @Rednewt74 . Love your detailed analysis on cropping and how that can customize the ratio. You have a talent for photography, and I learn a lot through your posts!

[Rednewt74]

@AZ_2021 ,

Thank you for the kind words.

I love sharing helpful information and I’m glad to hear that you find it useful.

[tony_b]

Thanks for the useful links @Rednewt74

So yes the feature is there. Just accessed in a different way.

[PaulPavlinovich]

Hi @Rednewt74 thanks for the article, I would like to address two things. Cropping an image does not change its resolution (Dots per inch) but saving it might if you don’t choose your quality settings appropriately.

Secondly whether an image fills the screen is very much up to the site design and the available pixels within the image. If the site calls for a landscape presentation and it’s displaying a portrait image depending on the site design and the user’s browser it will either display with black bars or it will crop to fit. Maps will generally crop to fit on preview and display black bars when you open the image.

Its also worth noting that Maps does not store the images and videos at the quality you add them at. It saves them at a resolution (and frame rate in the case of video) that suits Maps.

Paul

[MrFreez]

In deed I have seen some very small photos both in landscape and portrait on google maps, but didn’t know why until now. Thank you @Rednewt74 .

I usually maintain same ratio when cropping for google map because I am not very particular about a perfect photo but a more realistic one.

[Rednewt74]

@PaulPavlinovich ,

Thank you for adding to the discussion and for your correction regarding cropping not changing the resolution.