Question about Cropping out damage

[danielcole]

What's OPR's stance on cropping out damaged edges of photos if it does not remove or alter the main subject of the photo?  One example is the following:
http://www.photoshelter.com/img-show/I0000Gk1WDqYI.cI

The baby's legs can be fixed with a little effort, but the wall on the right side of the photo is pretty much all gone.  Is it ok to crop out that side of the photo and focus  in on the kids?  If retaining standard image dimensions is a concern would it be ok to  crop  the top and right of the photo, making sure to leave plenty of room around the kids?

It's a great thing you all are doing.  I can only imagine the logistics in keeping all of this straight.


--danielcole
--Kirksville, Mo.

[chazcron]

Daniel,

I'd suggest rebuilding the original proportions whenever possible, especially when it is just vague background that can be faked without drawing attention to it. Most of the time, I'd assume the picture will go into a standard size frame or photo album or it  mightn't look quite the same as they remember. If you'd rather just fix what you can, these forums will be filled with people who can help put the finishing touches on anything.

Just my .02. :-)

Charlie

[danielcole]

Yeah, I was going back and forth on whether to crop or not to crop.  Figured that if I had the question a few others maybe would too.

thanks for the speedy reply.

--danielcole

[beckysell]

When it comes to cropping out damaged areas, while at times it may come to that, try to do the best you can with it.  There have been photos that have come to that in order to give the owners the best product back, but it's a last resort.

[Dave]

Actually I was wondering the same thing as I have been looking at the last few images in Mike's gallery and there are a few like this one:

http://www.photoshelter.com/img-show/I0000W3zPgFrmWi4

As we are not allowed to use other peoples body parts (for obvious reasons), how would we go about fixing this image - the lady sat down on the bench to the left specificly... would you crop the image to cut her out totally?

[happyheart]

Dave,
In my opinion, I would vote for cropping the left and rebuilding the right and top.  I would then resize the image to whatever it was originally.  There's really no way to fix the woman on the left, as we have no idea what she looked like.  Let's see what Becky, Mike, or Dave have to say on this. 
I didn't know we were not supposed to use other body parts.  What is the logic on this?  I realize they have to be appropriate, but why not replace if something is totally not repairable?

[Dave]

Its in the FAQ on the main site:

4. Do not use body parts from other images to replace missing ones in the photo that you are restoring. The owners of these images will immediately recognize anything that's "wrong".  If you have multiple photos of the same subject matter, it may be permissible to use some parts of one to better restore another, but only if the effect remains natural looking and does not adversely affect the integrity of the image.

Here is the link to the FAQ aswell http://www.oprworkshop.org/oprfaq.html

Most that are left are pretty badly damaged like the above image and I didnt want to start work on one without knowing what I should do with people that cant be fixed.

[pixeldrift]

Sure, cropping would be quick, but restoring the background on this photo is quite basic and shouldn't be hard at all.  I'd opt for trying to retrain the dimensions/composition of the original image as much as possible.