Really stupid question about cropping 8x10

[SwissJon]

quite simply, the larger the original, the larger you can print out at photo quality. If your picture looks good SOOC then that would be what you want to supply.. However most of us mere mortals need to crop a little, even if it's to straighten a horizon or two.. I'd say, if you're looking to supply your clients with prints suitable for printing at photo quality, then 3000pxx2400px is the MINIMUM you should consider.

However if the pictures are destined for print in newspapers or magazines, then you can afford to supply them with lower quality prints. From my understanding they want anything between 200dpi and 150dpi, but it's best to check with the paper.. You can simply multiply the DPI (Dots per inch) by the Edge size in inches to get the minimum number of pixels to supply.

[ajax_andy]

Originally Posted by SwissJon

quite simply, the larger the original, the larger you can print out at photo quality. If your picture looks good SOOC then that would be what you want to supply.. However most of us mere mortals need to crop a little, even if it's to straighten a horizon or two.. I'd say, if you're looking to supply your clients with prints suitable for printing at photo quality, then 3000pxx2400px is the MINIMUM you should consider.

However if the pictures are destined for print in newspapers or magazines, then you can afford to supply them with lower quality prints. From my understanding they want anything between 200dpi and 150dpi, but it's best to check with the paper.. You can simply multiply the DPI (Dots per inch) by the Edge size in inches to get the minimum number of pixels to supply.

Thanks for the info,

What would happen if I shot a wedding and gave the clients the pictures the same size as SOC, then they go to print them... wont this involve some auto cropping and possibly ruin the picture?

Ideally I'd like to give them SOC as to me these look best and are composed for this ratio, but as it's different to standard photo frame sizes my concern is that should they print them it'll cause problems due to cropping

[dlambert]

The best scenario is to size & sharpen the image for each different output size & medium. If you're printing at 8" x 10", that's one output, and using it on a web page at 400x500 pixels is another output -- you don't want to rely on a browser to resize that image, for instance.

For printed output, most printers are pretty good at resizing your image to meet the size & DPI you're printing at, but if you can do that work yourself (so you can review the results), that's usually preferred. This is why Lightroom (and possibly other systems, too) will let you apply a crop to your photo as a ratio, but when you output for a specific size & DPI, the image is sized correctly at that time based on your original photo.

If you don't know the size a photo will be printed at, I guess you don't have much of an alternative to delivering your files in original form and hoping that the people who will be prepping for print handle them correctly, but that's why photographers are typically reluctant to give up that control.

[ajax_andy]

Originally Posted by dlambert

The best scenario is to size & sharpen the image for each different output size & medium. If you're printing at 8" x 10", that's one output, and using it on a web page at 400x500 pixels is another output -- you don't want to rely on a browser to resize that image, for instance.

For printed output, most printers are pretty good at resizing your image to meet the size & DPI you're printing at, but if you can do that work yourself (so you can review the results), that's usually preferred. This is why Lightroom (and possibly other systems, too) will let you apply a crop to your photo as a ratio, but when you output for a specific size & DPI, the image is sized correctly at that time based on your original photo.

If you don't know the size a photo will be printed at, I guess you don't have much of an alternative to delivering your files in original form and hoping that the people who will be prepping for print handle them correctly, but that's why photographers are typically reluctant to give up that control.

Thank you for the reply.

Yes I can set a specific ratio in Photoshop and crop for this, so if printing myself then I could set say 10 x 8 for the crop and use it accordingly.

The chances are I'll just be giving images to people on disk for now though and so I guess the best thing to do is just give them in the dimensions they come from the camera in (I think it's 4272 pixels x 2848 pixels).

My worry is they'll take them to one of those machines where you put your CD in and it prints them for you... I have concerns half the pics will come out with heads missing or family members chopped in half. I suppose in this situation though I can always offer the pics cropped after the event if they complain as it wont take long to quickly crop them correctly so it works as a pic and resend?

[ajax_andy]

Just done a bit more reading up on this issue and as the ratio for DSLR's is generally 3:2 this cover prints that are 6x4... so as most of these machines I mentioned will print 6x4 then it shouldn't cause any problems I'd imagine?

If someone did want larger prints then I could recommend they go for a 12 x 8 to avoid any cropping.

Was I worrying about this issue for nothing, or am I now over simplifying things?

[SwissJon]

Andy...

All the stuff said about 8x10 is equally valid for 3x2.. Quite simply, if you dont know what size it is, keep it as big as possible. If you do, keep the number of pixels on any particular side to the number: (dpi the picture will be printed at) x the number of inches on the side.

It's really not as complicated as you are expecting.

[ajax_andy]

Originally Posted by SwissJon

Andy...

All the stuff said about 8x10 is equally valid for 3x2.. Quite simply, if you dont know what size it is, keep it as big as possible. If you do, keep the number of pixels on any particular side to the number: (dpi the picture will be printed at) x the number of inches on the side.

It's really not as complicated as you are expecting.

Yeah I think you're right Jon... think I just over thought the whole thing and got myself very confussed!

Thanks for your help

[SwissJon]

Happens to me all the time.. You're expecting something to be complicated, so you make it complicated and see past the obvious..

[Marley89]

I was just reading this thread because I'm having a heck of a time wrapping my head around getting my images to standard print sizes. I took some photos of a friend's daughter and her horse and I'm trying to size the images for standard print sizes (8x10, 5x7, 11x14 etc). Many of them I can't crop to the 1:1.5 & 1:1.25 aspect ratios without cropping important stuff! But, when I go into try and adjust the Image Size in Photoshop, I can't get anywhere near the sizes either.

@ 300ppi I get an image size of 16.427x10.88. If I change the height to 8 inches my width is 12.078 inches. Do you just have to get as close as possible and then resample the image and put it on a standard size canvas and have uneven white borders or extend the background if possible?

I'm sure this isn't near as complicated as it appears, but I feel like I'm back in high school in Calculus 2! Still searching for a tutorial if anyone knows where there is one.

Thanks!

[NathanFranke]

If the background is easy to expand, (blank sky, seamless backdrop) then go for it. Otherwise, you'll have to crop something important. The camera captures photos in a 2:3 ratio, so 4x6 and 8x12 will require no cropping. If you want it to be 8x10 or 5x7, you'll be losing something.