Photo Crop Size?!

[michellegportraits]

Hey everyone! I just had a quick question about what size you have your final images for your clients? In the past I've always just cropped for composition purposes only, but some clients who have purchased CDs from me of their image don't want square cropped photos cause they can't print a 4x6 of it at their local walgreens without it cropping their picture, and some other sizes they try to print crops an inch or so off the sides---little things like that. So should I make all my clients' final images a certain ratio? a certain size so no matter what size they try to print them it'll come out without cropping any of their images?

[WVCoalMiner]

Won't happen.... If you crop for a 4X6 then they cannot print it as a 8X10, If you crop it for a 8X10 then they cannot print it as a 4X6 without cropping an inch or so off. There is no "magic" size to crop to.
The ONLY way to do that is to have 2 crops of each photo one as a 8X10 and one as a 4X6 OR when you crop them leave an extra inch on one side that they can crop out.

[OsmosisStudios]

Have your customer's purchase prints from you: only crop those you want based on what the customer orders. Saves you trouble and makes you some extra cash.

[michellegportraits]

Ok thanks I was kind of thinking that.

[autofocus]

Originally Posted by OsmosisStudios

Have your customer's purchase prints from you: only crop those you want based on what the customer orders. Saves you trouble and makes you some extra cash.

+1 for OS...sell them prints, or charge them big bucks for the disk.

[JAD40]

I have read about shooting to crop, but I never followed that rule till recently when I tried to get some pictures printed. I wanted to enter a local photography contest, and they require the prints to be 8x10. The heads of my subjects were chopped off, and it left me with undesirable photos. I learned my lesson.

[autofocus]

Originally Posted by JAD40

I have read about shooting to crop, but I never followed that rule till recently when I tried to get some pictures printed. I wanted to enter a local photography contest, and they require the prints to be 8x10. The heads of my subjects were chopped off, and it left me with undesirable photos. I learned my lesson.

JAD, there are ways on some images to "stretch" the crop, but it won't work well on all images. If you set your crop tool to say 8x10 and it's not going to allow the crop you want, simply drag a corner of the crop frame beyond the parameters of the image...you will wind up with a white border around two sides of the image. You then can fill in those areas with some cut and pasting and cloning. This will only work if those areas to be filled can be copied or cloned from areas that can be used..like foliage and grass, or walls, etc. You can stretch either of the 2 sides that meet at right angles...best to pick the one that'll clone best. Hope this helps you in the future

Vinnie

[teaking]

If you really have to work with an image and make it fit 8x10 depending on the image like Auto-Focus pointed out you can also use Liquid-Rescale using the GUI or Mask how ever the photoshop version works, to select the areas that must remain the same ratio, it then resizes to the new ratio leaving the masked area in the same proportions.

It is image specific to how well it will come out but with this and auto-focus's methods you may be able to salvage your images

[JAD40]

I actually discovered this recently when I was testing out an online printing company. I was unaware that the 2:3 aspect ratio of my camera wouldn't be able to produce an 8x10 print without cropping. You are going to have to shoot for the crop if you want to print several different sizes from one image.