Good cropping can turn a good photo to an excellent one. Think about the photo that you’re taking like your cockpit – there’s no clutter, distractions or irrelevant items. In the same way, your photo should be densely packed with interesting things, and with “empty” space – areas where there is nothing of interest – excluded as much as possible, perhaps only to balance the photo as a border. The below example (before and after cropping) isn’t by any means a great photo, but as soon as it is cropped, it’s actually a lot more apparent what the photographer is trying to show with the photograph.

Before Cropping

 After Cropping

As the original picture was almost completely black at a glance on the left hand side due to the mountain’s shadow, that has been cropped out. This has left a picture with a lot more focus – it’s not a struggle to try to work out what’s being looked at – which hopefully, is more appealing and takes an interesting look at the rocky ridge beneath contrasted against the wing.