title: The psychometrics of photographic cropping: the influence of colour, meaning, and expertise.
abstract: Cropping is the central act of photography, the viewfinder of a camera being used to crop a portion of the visual world which is then surrounded with a frame. Six studies are described which show that the act of cropping is carried out reliably and confidently by both expert and non-expert participants. Two studies confirm that some croppers are better croppers than others, their cropped images being preferred aesthetically over the croppings of less-good croppers. Colour had little impact on cropping decisions, whereas thresholded monochrome images ('Mooney images') dramatically altered crop positions. That suggests that cropping can be driven top-down, by the meaning of objects in photographs, but the fact that the Mooneyised images are still cropped consistently, suggests that image structure, perhaps in the form of low-level image properties, may still be important. Experts crop pictures differently from non-experts, and they take longer, viewing a wider range of possible crops, pausing longer to assess crops, and using more formal terminology when reflecting on their cropping decisions. Experts' crops are not, however, preferred more, either by non-expert viewers or by expert viewers. Cropping, it is suggested, is an ideal paradigm for experimental aesthetics, allowing precise experimental control with Fechner's Method of Production, a technique which normally is not easy to use.
authors.affiliation: Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK. i.mcmanus@ucl.ac.uk
authors.forename: I Christopher
authors.initials: IC
authors.lastname: McManus
authors.forename: Fanzhi Anita
authors.initials: FA
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Sophie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: l'Anson
authors.forename: Lucy
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Waterfield
authors.forename: Katharina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Stöver
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Cook
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002755:Choice Behavior; D003118:Color Perception; D004954:Esthetics / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010781:Photography / Q000379:methods*; D011361:Professional Competence; D011594:Psychometrics; D055815:Young Adult