Print sizes confusion

wonkyrabbit

wonkyrabbit

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Name
Dawn
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Hi everyone,
I'm just starting out as a child/family portrait photographer and wanted some advice on which print sizes i should offer my clients as I'm a little confused about what is the 'standard'.
My SLR takes images that are 3x2 ratio which obviously scales nicely to 6x4, 9x6 etc... but it seems that the most common picture frame and canvas sizes are 8x6, 10x8, 12x10 etc. which are all slightly different ratios (4x3, 5x4, 6x5). I want to offer digital images too so I'm not sure if or how i should crop my final images for client viewing. I want the client to be able to frame the prints easily so i guess standard frame sizes are more important than original aspect ratio? If they order a selection of prints from uncropped 3x2 ratio images i don't want them find that bits of the image are cropped out when they get their prints, however if i crop the images down to fit say 4x3 ratio then i will have to crop further if they order different sizes anyway.
Does that all make sense? What does everyone else do?
Thanks!
D
 
Depending on your PP software, you may be able to crop to the required ratio using the crop tool. Lightroom for instance gives a choice of various ratios or freehand. However, prints should be mounted prior to framing so differences in ratio between the frame and print can be adjusted by varying the mount aperture.

E.g. For a 12 x 8 print, you can use a standard frame size of 14 x 10 where the external size of the mount matches the frame and the aperture is cut to the print size.

Oh yes, and a warm welcome to TP.
 
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I'm using Lightroom and have seen the crop presets in there which are useful. I see what you are saying about the mount - i just assumed that the mounts that come with pre-made frames tend to be the same ratio as the frame itself so there is an even border.
Thanks for the reply.
 
Framed prints often look best when the borders are not equal. Many framers will, for instance, leave a wider border on the bottom edge. To most human eyes it just looks neater.
 
Well that does make things much easier. I really would prefer to keep the 3:2 aspect so that you don't have to shoot wide. Taking pics of kids running around doesn't leave much time for planning shots!
D
 
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