When it comes to landscape photography, few creative decisions have a greater impact on the final image than your choice of crop. And yet, that can be a bit of a nebulous thing to nail down for a lot of photographers. If you would like to improve your crops and your overall images, check out this fantastic video tutorial that features an experienced landscape photographer offering a lot of helpful advice and insight into what makes a good crop.
Coming to you from Mark Denney, this great video tutorial will show you a great approach to thinking about cropping landscape photos. If you are anything like me, you sometimes spend several minutes staring at your screen, unable to decide on which crop you prefer for an image and cycling between different options over and over. Denney's approach of the "dominant edge" makes a lot of sense, however, and is a fantastic guiding principle. Cropping is something I'll probably always struggle with, but learning more approaches is never a bad thing. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Denney.
And if you really want to dive into landscape photography, check out "Photographing The World 1: Landscape Photography and Post-Processing with Elia Locardi," which is currently on sale along with the rest of the Fstoppers store!
Maybe I'm a mutant, but I don't think that my eyes follow the patterns described in this video. My first glance is usually at the center of the frame, and then goes to the brightest or most prominent/interesting feature. If the crop is a wide landscape oriented panorama, then (of course) I will scan laterally.