What’s Your Preference?

prince · #21 (**permalink**) 10-16-2008, 02:50 AM

I had no clue about ratios so this has been new info for me. Thanks for the discussion. And Wulf thanks for talking about D40

.. that helps me too.

newPerspective · #22 (**permalink**) 10-16-2008, 04:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sk66

Why do yo have to loose anything? Often the picture "I see" doesn't fit the frame. If what I'm seeing is square I'll crop the image to square; if it's a panoramic it may be cropped wide and short.
I don't loose any pixels, but I may waste paper or pay extra for prints. It also may require custom framing, but I prefer it to everything being in a "standard format"

Let me give you an example. Lets say my camera is set to 4:3 and I take a portrait(vertical, side profile) of my daughter just the face, zoomed in and real tight. And I'm happy with the shot and I would like to print it. So whats going to happen? I need to crop it before I send the image, which means I'll probably end up losing part of her ear and/or her nose. Another example is a macro shot of a butterfly, will have to chop off part of the wings if I were to print it. And lets say you take a picture of beautiful scenery, lake and moutains, etc ....an then you end up with the mountain tip gone and the pebbles in the lake to brought into the frame to create the sense of depthn thats gone too. (OK, that wasnt really 'an example', I counted 3

)

You mentioned "standard format", do you mean the standard for posting images online?

dakwegmo · #23 (**permalink**) 10-16-2008, 04:56 PM

You could always print the image at a non-standard print size and then mat it to a standard frame size. What I do with a lot of my photos is print at 8x12, then mat to an 11x14 frame.

With portraits, I usually know I want to print at 8x10, so I make sure there's nothing in the bottom 1/6th of the image so I can crop without losing anything.

wulf · #24 (**permalink**) 10-16-2008, 07:59 PM

It helps if you have an idea of the final output as you compose the picture.

Sometimes I will frame a scene very carefully and there won't be scope to change the ratio afterwards; other times, I will be much looser with the framing (concentrating on a particular subject and keeping it away from the edge) which gives more options.

I don't do much printing but I have noticed that most of the photo printing sites I have seen have options for 4:3 and 3:2 ratios (and you can always pad the image with margins to get the desired ratio and trim down afterwards).

Wulf

newPerspective · #25 (**permalink**) 10-16-2008, 08:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dakwegmo

With portraits, I usually know I want to print at 8x10, so I make sure there's nothing in the bottom 1/6th of the image so I can crop without losing anything.

I had strated doing EXACTLY that, making sure to leave some extra room to give scope for cropping. But it got frustrating after a point. And thats when I thought of switching over, and wanted you guys' advice of things that I need to be aware of with the 2:3, other than the fact that vertical portraits appear more vertical.

Quote:

Originally Posted by wulf

It helps if you have an idea of the final output as you compose the picture.

Sometimes I will frame a scene very carefully and there won't be scope to change the ratio afterwards; other times, I will be much looser with the framing (concentrating on a particular subject and keeping it away from the edge) which gives more options.

I don't do much printing but I have noticed that most of the photo printing sites I have seen have options for 4:3 and 3:2 ratios (and you can always pad the image with margins to get the desired ratio and trim down afterwards).

Wulf

Thats makes total sense, Thank you wulf. I'm afraid of my own laziness of switching between shots and later worry about the PP. But I should just stop worrying and consider the non-standard prints and frames. Not that I print a ton of stuff, but I do want to make a photo-journal of my 2 fast growing girls.

Thanks everyone for all your advice and suggestions

crunch · #26 (**permalink**) 10-17-2008, 05:00 AM

Recently, I've begun cropping my phots 1:1 (square). Obviously, I take the photo with the cropping goal in mind, so I don't lose anything (that I want in the photo) when I crop. I quite like the square, it's very different and makes a nice challenge for me.

Other than that, I've got a 16:10 widescreen monitor so my 3:2 photos make nice backgrounds.

dannyrich · #27 (**permalink**) 10-17-2008, 08:29 AM

Im now confused.

I have been putting a lot of time and effort into looking into ratios and crops recently.

HOWEVER

Im trying to work out if i am 3:2 or 4:3... my pic sizes are:

4288 pix x 2848 which is neither. Its closer to 3:2 though but should be 2858.66 high!

sfisher · #28 (**permalink**) 10-17-2008, 09:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dannyrich

Im trying to work out if i am 3:2 or 4:3... my pic sizes are:

4288 pix x 2848 which is neither. Its closer to 3:2 though but should be 2858.66 high!

Your ratio is 3:1.993. The error is less than 0.4%! Use 3:2 and you won't notice the difference. Crop 16 pixels off the height and you get the 'proper' 3:2 ratio.