I recently did some photo portraits for a friend. I did some minor editing to them in Photoshop Elements but I didn't change the size as I had already cropped in-camera to create the effect I wanted.
After they chose their images to be processed, I uploaded them to Photobox to have them developed as 7%26quot;x5%26quot; prints. Here is where I get confused:
The images were shown with a 7%26quot;x5%26quot; aspect box around them but while it fitted perfectly along the width (5%26quot;), the box lacked height (7%26quot;) and I had to decide whether to lose a hand from the bottom of the image or more of the headfrom the top. I didn't take the picture in that way with the intention of cropping it. If I had originally cropped the image to an irregular shape on Photoshop I could understand why the picture wouldn't fit but this really pissed me off!
I tried choosing different sized prints but, although the 6%26quot;x4%26quot; fitted almost exactly (a tad too much width-wise, though), the larger choices just cropped MORE of the image.
How am I supposed to show someone their photo files in order to choose their images if what ever size they decide to have will be cropped in the end?
6%26quot;x4%26quot; = almost fine
7%26quot;x5%26quot; = cropped a fraction
8%26quot;x10%26quot; = cropped A LOT!
Bigger = Why did you even bother?
I'm so het up about it. Is there a trick that I haven't learned yet? What's the point of cropping in-camera if you have to slice MORE off depending on the print size? Do I need to know what size they wanted in the beginning? What the hell do I do if they want more than one of the same picture but in different sizes? They won't look the same - crop-wise.
What do I do?
Why, why, why is it so hard to get the photo-size I want?
I can't lay it out any better than fotoace did for you, except to say again PLEASE STOP that in camera cropping!
When you are taking client photos you have to allow for all possible desired sizes. That means you do not put your subject at extreme closeness to the edges of the frame. Always allow room in your composition to %26quot;throw away%26quot; parts along the edges.
... and again... do your cropping in Photoshop.... NOT the camera.
steve
Why, why, why is it so hard to get the photo-size I want?
When I do all my crops, which are never in the camera, I always crop to 5x7. If I need to print 4x6, which I very very very rarely do, I can shave just a bit off each side. If I need to crop 4x5 (8x10) then it just takes a bit from the top or bottom. I do occasionally crop things to 4x5 aspect ratio right off the bat if there's no way to make it work without losing something vital to the picture. Likewise with 4x6.
I use michiganphoto.com to print anything. They have their own program that is run online that fits your picture into a frame of a size you choose and then you can move it around if the size isn't perfect to the crop you want. It really couldn't be much easier.
If you are really hellbent on having the entire image, no matter what the size, printed, add a little white border around the whole thing then cut it off when you get the pictures back, or ask the printer to do it for you. They may for no extra charge, especially if they know you. You can either figure out how much extra you need to make sure the entirety of the picture in your camera, or just add 100 pixels to the canvas size, 50 to each side and top and bottom. Anything that is going to be displayed is most likely going to be matted and framed anyway. That little extra bit of white will probably be hidden by a matte anyway.
If they matte the picture, they're going to lose 1/4%26quot; around the whole picture anyway. If I have a crop of photo that cannot change, I tell my clients that they get 4x5 or 8x10, and that's all that's available for that pic. Generally when I have any problems, its with something that has to stay as square as possible. Good Luck.
Do NOT crop in the camera. You have no way of knowing what the engineers decided that the camera throw away during the crop!
* Shoot everything at your cameras highest resolution
* When you do crop using Elements, save the new image as a new file name so you do NOT overwrite your original file.
* Cropping using the much larger screen on the computer will be much more accurate than trying to use the tiny LCD on your camera.
* For each print size, crop it to the exact dimensions and make sure you save it at the highest quality JPEG setting @ 300 DPI.
* For ease of finding those files again, when you rename them, put a 46, 57 or 810 at the end of the file name to remind you of the cropping it has.
You may find creating a new file folder for each shoot and sub - folders for each size crop will help you manage your photos better.
Example:
File folder - MaxOct09
Max sub-file folder - RAW
Max sub-file folder - DNG
Max sub-file folder - JPEG
Max %26gt; JPEG sub-file folder - 8x10
Max %26gt; JPEG sub-file folder - 5x7
Max %26gt; JPEG sub-file folder - 4x6
