Cropping for commercial projects?

[kitschenalia]

I've put "commercial projects" even though I did this wedding for free, because I want to learn how to do this properly, and not have issues when we get to the printing stage. On my first (last) freebie wedding, I cropped to my heart's content with a free aspect, and now I worry that there will be problems when they ask me to order prints. I may have to do a lot of cloning etc. to make the shots work at a printable crop ratio.

I'm at the stage of editing all the shots right now, which I will then put on my FB page as well as giving them a proper slideshow (perhaps on Flickr) so they can choose which to have printed. So during editing, what do I crop at? 7x5? 6x4? Confused.

Thank you!

 

[Kev M]

If you're offering a variety of print sizes but are worried about cropping why not only offer print sizes in the same aspect ratio?

6x4, 9x6, 12x8

 

[kitschenalia]

Good idea! Although my personal pref for framing photos at home is 7x5 - what is typical in a purchased wedding photo album?

 

[haggis]

Depends on the type of album. We offer both storybook (Graphistudio style) and matted. With storybook the aspect is hardly relevant and with matted we have a range of different mat aperture sizes so can handle most crop requirements.

 

[kitschenalia]

haggis, thanks for the reply, sorry to be dumb, but I'm guessing that you mean either a photobook, or a more traditional album with actual prints inserted? Do wedding photographers take care of everything right down to providing the physical album?

thanks

 

[richpips]

So during editing, what do I crop at? 7x5? 6x4? Confused.

I'd not crop them at all except for maybe slightly tweaking compostion.

I offer prints in a variety of formats and crop accordingly when I print

 

[kitschenalia]

thanks Some shots would benefit from cropping out (another person's arm, etc.).