Im confused about cropping and printing, please help

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lukewoodford

FYI, I am Luke Woodford.....by Luke Woodford
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Ok im confused and know nothing about prints:thinking:, here is a situation for example- you get back from shooting and you have a few photos that need the side cropping a bit. the customer likes these photos and wants prints, now you have cropped the edge off, when they print will there be a blank white bit on the side of the print when i cropped it? If you could help me with this and maybe point a good printing/cropping tutorial in my direction would be great. Many thanks

Luke
 
How about cutting the prints down to size when you get them? Or make a uniform white band around the whole edge of the photo before printing?
 
your sensor will be a 3:2 ration, so uncropped photos will be complete if printed at 6"x4" or 12"x8" etc. or any other variation of this ratio.

if you're cropping off the sides, then you need a different ratio. 4:3 or 5:4 are the other popular ratios.
4:3 is 8" x 6" for example.

just make sure that you crop to a ratio rather than free-hand, then you shouldn't have a problem if you print to the same ratios....

hopefully this helps somewhat.
 
Joe T said:
What image editor do you use?

In PS for example its possible to maintain the height-width proportions of the original image (actually it allows you to determine what height-width proportions you want).
Click to expand...

I have PS CS3 so ill look into that, i just noticed that everyone gives (good) advice about cropping pics to improve the image but i was baffled what you do when you want them printed. I understand that if you crop the same amount of the side as the to you can just ajust the image size but if not you wont be able to fit it into normal frames or anything?!
 
WeddingHack said:
That's why I never crop away from the 3:2 ratio my camera generates - that way there is no confusion or strange shapes when it comes to printing.

Rather than cropping you might want to give this technique a try : http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=73497 (scroll down)
Click to expand...

Thank you very much that answers my not very well put quetsion perfectly, basically you cant just cjrop random bits off and print them for customers and expect them to put them in frames, suppose it was quite obvious really :)
 
Whilst the trick in PS does retain the AR the IQ will be reduced through the enlargement process, naturally only to a degree proportionate with the amount of 'cropping' you're doing.

If you've got access to Lightroom (or have the Creative Suite etc..) then 'Shift Dragging' the built in cropping tool under 'develop' allows the same effect but you'll always be downsizing meaning no fake or generated filler pixels.

Horses for courses I suppose. ;)
 
so if i take a shot in say 3:2 ratio,then i crop it to panorama format...does that mean when i take it to print(tesco at the moment)there will be bits of it missing? this explains why when i take a shot..for example like the one in my avatar which i cropped to get the desired effect,i cannot get it printed as i have it in the final result..if that makes sense :shrug:
 
why not select all and free transform? This way you can crop off what you dont need but still have the original size
 
WeddingHack said:
That's why I never crop away from the 3:2 ratio my camera generates - that way there is no confusion or strange shapes when it comes to printing.

Rather than cropping you might want to give this technique a try : http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=73497 (scroll down)
Click to expand...

Um am i being dumb but i tried following your tip and when i shift click on the corners after following the other steps it still seems to shrink the image. am i missing something?
 
I know whenever I've sold an image that has been cropped to funny size I've sold it mounted. The mount board is cut so the aperture fits the image and then the outer size of the mount is a standard size so it fits into an off-the-shelf frame.

Also, when you take your prints to Jessops/photobox/print them at home you can center the image on the print so you have an even border around the print, ok, so it may be thicker on the top and bottom than on the sides or vice versa but most people who buy prints will want to frame them and/or have them mounted and unless they're going to be using clip-frames (yeuch) then the border will be at least partially hidden anyways.
 
stan the man said:
so if i take a shot in say 3:2 ratio,then i crop it to panorama format...does that mean when i take it to print(tesco at the moment)there will be bits of it missing? this explains why when i take a shot..for example like the one in my avatar which i cropped to get the desired effect,i cannot get it printed as i have it in the final result..if that makes sense :shrug:
Click to expand...


Stan,

If you ask them to print a panoramic on a standard aspect ratio print (6x4, 10x8 etc) then they should shrink it to fit so you just end up with a big white border at the top and bottom that you can then trim off at home.
 
lukewoodford said:
Um am i being dumb but i tried following your tip and when i shift click on the corners after following the other steps it still seems to shrink the image. am i missing something?
Click to expand...

ok it works for me in lightroom but what about straightening, if i shift click will it maintain the original size? i cant tell:thinking:
 
lukewoodford said:
ok it works for me in lightroom but what about straightening, if i shift click will it maintain the original size? i cant tell:thinking:
Click to expand...

hmm, haven't got LR in front of me at the mo, but trying to work out the math re straightening. The aspect ratio will be modified by a very small amount if the rotation is also very small. Obviously if you're making 5> degree adjustments then it will be out of whack. Of course if you're making 5> degree adjustments then your togging technique might need some work. :suspect: lol

Of course, you could then always just crop in PS to get the original AR back.

Personally, I like making my own frames, so it's never been an issue!
 
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