More significant, or tight, cropping is often used to make the subject of a photo more prominent, for example an insect on a leaf or a wallaby surrounded by rocks. Cropping can be done very easily on your phone, and many people over the years have entered cropped photos to the Showcase. Unfortunately, this can result in low resolution and files that are too small to enlarge to the 20 x 30cm (or 30 x 20 cm) we use for Showcase display. We ask for files of at least 1 MB but depending on the subject we sometimes accept slightly smaller files. If you have cropped a photo you will need to have a look at the file information to determine if it will have high enough resolution to be enlarged. To add a level of difficulty, your phone might not be the best place to find the information easily! ☹️

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The example above shows an original photo and 2 levels of cropping, along with the file size information from:

1) the phone and

2) the saved images once they have been uploaded to the Showcase form. 

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We can see that the original file, at 2.8 MB, would be readily accepted for the Showcase, and all the phone information is the same as the uploaded file. However, for the cropped images the size of the files in MB is different. Your phone might not give you a true idea of the size of your cropped files as, even though you see the cropped file in your photos, it is not saved as the cropped file but as the original. A bit confusing I know, but the cropped file will therefore look like it is the same file size – in megabytes - as the original but once it is exported to the Showcase website it is a smaller file; often a file we can’t use.

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The takeaway message is, if your phone is telling you your cropped photo is the same size as your original, don’t believe it! And most importantly, if you have cropped your image more than just the amount required for the correct ratio, please check before you upload to the Showcase entry form.

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In this case a better number to look at might be the MP (megapixels) of your cropped image.  Basically, images are made up of a grid of coloured dots called pixels. In the example above, the number of dots, or pixels, in the original image is 3 million (3 megapixels). When an image is cropped we are only taking a small rectangle of the pixel grid so the number of pixels in our image is reduced. If the cropped image is enlarged to 20 x 30 cm for example, the image will have fewer dots and may have less clarity; so, the decrease in MP can give you an idea of whether the resolution might be too low for the Showcase. Clearly, it is more complicated than this simple explanation, but we can recommend that once the MP value is below about 3 on your cropped image it is a good idea to send the image to yourself by email then resave it on your phone or other device. It will resave as the cropped version, and you can see what the actual size is.

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If you would like to know a bit more about how to crop your images and how to find the file size information on your phone, watch the screen video below. Please note: this demonstration is on an iPhone, other phones will access their editing screen through a little pencil icon ✏️

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​​​As always, when in doubt email:

maggiephotocompetition@gmail.com 

or

miphotocommunity@gmail.com

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