Cropping Your Photos Like a Professional

When you’re looking to make your marketing materials stand out, choosing the right photos is essential, and this is true whether you’re coming at the decision from a marketing or graphic design perspective. However, selecting the perfect image is only the first step. Now you need to figure out how you can best use it.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned as a photographer, it’s that cropping can make or break your photo. Cropping is perfect for cutting out distracting landscapes, zooming in tighter for a detail shot, or maximizing copy or white space. I’ve put together some examples of cropping the same photo for different uses in your marketing materials.

Original full-sized image:

The photo above is a great example of a free stock image for the following reasons:

• The arms and watch add diagonal visual movement and energy to the photo.
• The large white space or copy space between the arms and watch is a perfect location for some text like a quote or a title.
• This image allows you to crop the photo into several more detailed pictures—meaning that you can easily repurpose this image for a variety of marketing uses.

This photo is also a great example of an image that will work for a variety of marketing mediums. Keep scrolling to see for yourself.

CTA (760 x 250 px)

eBook Cover (8.5 x 11 in)

Smartphone Interstitial Banner Ad (300 x 250 px)

Standard Smartphone Banner Ad (300 x 50 px)

Email Header (600 x 150 px)

Do you have a great image that you think would work in a variety of marketing uses? Using the sizes in the headers above, try it out for yourself and let us know!