Take Night Photos, Understand Focal Lengths, and More

Generally, you'll see this kind of effect when you take a photo of something that's rotating during the exposure, so its position changes over the course of the short exposure. I can't quite figure out what caused the effect in your photo of the kitchen sink, but it has all the hallmarks of a rolling shutter problem, and so that's how I would diagnose this photo.

When to Crop

When in your digital workflow should you crop a photo First Last Somewhere in between--Alex Rigly, San Diego, California

Typically, I suggest cropping the photo very early in your editing process, Alex. You should definitely crop before you do any color or exposure adjustments. That way, your photo editing software can base any automatic adjustments only on the colors and brightness found in the part of the photo you want to keep, and it can disregard the bits you've cropped away.

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