When do you crop an image and when don’t you?

While we're photographing, we think through our intended composition. For the most part, the image is proportioned correctly at the time it's shot, and doesn't require cropping. However, when we're doing formal pictures, we'll leave a little extra room on the right and left side. This is because when you do an 8x10 picture, it will crop the image. We want to leave non-essential image areas on the sides so that the people don't get cropped out.