Shimokitazawa Awa Odori 2026 had an ever-repeating problem for me. If you haven’t been there, the area’s streets are narrow and cramped. The lighting isn’t great. People are everywhere. Getting that perfect shot can be difficult.
In such a dense crowd, it’s a given that extraneous elements will enter your frame. Your photos won’t be at their best. It can’t be helped. There’s no point crying over this. But there is a solution. Cropping.
What is cropping a photograph?
Cropping is the removal of an unwanted outer area from an image. I use Adobe Lightroom and it’s easy. Just access the develop module and click the crop tool.
Click and drag the handles to adjust the size of the image. Play around with it until you find the image you like. It’s very simple.
Cropping’s downside: Since you are cutting away a part of the image, the resolution of the image will change. If your camera has a huge amount of pixels like my Canon EOS R5’s (45 megapixels) you can crop very deep.
But if you have an older camera with fewer megapixels, cropping can be problematic. If you crop too much your photos will suffer from a loss of resolution and pixel data. You will have to make judgment calls from time to time.
My real world crop example
Some Awa Odori performers will do their utmost to entertain the crowd. The man in the images below is a classic example. I pointed my camera at him and he gave me his attention, for which I will be forever grateful.
I was using my Canon RF24-105mm F4 L IS USM zoom and I knew this guy would be gone in a few seconds. There was no time to set up the perfect composition. So I snapped off a few shots and gave him a big smile and nod and we parted ways.
When I got home, the unedited version wasn’t appealing. Some work in Lightroom combined with cropping turned it into a winning image. But what do you think?
Why crop?
- Remove distractions: You can cut out messy backgrounds, stray objects at the edge of your shot.
- Emphasize your subject: Zoom in closer to the main focal point to increase impact and detail. I like this one as I don’t have a long lens.
- Improve composition: You can fix framing mistakes or improve the alignment of a photo. I do not do this a lot.
- Change aspect ratios: 3:2 is a common aspect ratio for images and it’s been around for years. But Instagram likes 4:5 and the squarish 1:1. Changing your aspect ratio can be a necessity.
And this is why cropping is so good at events like Shimokitazawa Awa Odori. So many unnecessary elements will enter your frame. Eliminating them improves your image.
This is what makes cropping so powerful. Adjusting the outer area of your image can improve your image so much.
Of course, platforms like Lightroom and Photoshop have other tools for eliminating distractions. I prefer to avoid those as much as possible.
Is cropping for you?
Some people don’t like using all the tools that Lightroom and Photoshop provide. That’s me. I feel uneasy when I use them (so yes, I do use them). But they do feel too much. They are almost like cheating.
For me, cropping is the simplest and most elegant ways to improve an image.
The next time you’re shooting a crowded Tokyo festival and feel like the environment is working against you, don’t delete those “messy” shots. Try cropping them. You could find a masterpiece hiding just beneath the surface.
Let’s talk about you. Do you prefer cropping or do you prefer getting your image right in camera? Tell me in the comments. And to learn more about this event look at [Shimokitazawa Awa Odori Photography Guide].