Stamper, Sometimes the aspect ratio is a dead giveaway, and sometimes I've seen the originals, or contact sheets for the originals, or at least the same picture with a different crop. But I didn't say I "know" the very best aren't cropped. I said I'd bet that most of the very best weren't cropped. I'd still place that bet. In HCB's case I'd win every time. With Robert Frank I'd win more than I'd lose. With a few others I'd be gambling. But even with those, more often than not the crop wouldn't be arbitrary; it would be a crop required by an inability to get in place for the shot the photographer wanted. That's different from shooting loosely and then, in Photoshop, spending ten minutes deciding what you really wanted to say. The people who make the best photographs know exactly what they want to say at the instant they trip the shutter.