print ratios, cropping, resize

papaross

First some background: I take all my pictures in maximum strength RAW with a full size camera. I import all pictures into Lightroom, converting to a Adobe DNG extension, where I do as much editing as necessary/possible, then transfer them as PSD or TIFF to Photoshop for further editing, if necessary. I crop and/or resize a fair amount of photographs to standard frame size, i.e. 8x10, 5x7, 3x6 etc so when they are printed, I see exactly, on paper what I see on screen. The cropping rarely presents a problem, because I am usually cropping out background, sky, or bringing the subject in closer. Got it so far?

Here’s the problem. I just took a number of full body length photos where I want to keep the full body in the photo. Cropping to standard sizes is impossible without cutting off some head and/or feet, or going to Photoshop to resize with “constrain proportions” turned off. This, of course, either makes the subject fatter, skinny, compressed downward etc. What can I do to correct the problem when this situation arises? Can I do something in the camera when the picture is taken? Do I need to get a plugin? Or am I missing something in the software to solve this problem? HELP!!

jfriend

In camera, you just have to leave more extra room in the shot on the long end of your photos. I'm assuming your camera is a 3:2 aspect ratio. If that's the case, the 8x10 image has to crop a bunch off the long end of the image. To keep from losing an important piece of your subject, you just have to leave more room on the long end when you take your shot.

In post processing, the only options are to stretch the whole photo (which is usually not a viable option with people) or to add background to the short sides (which keeps you from having to crop on the long end). How easily this can be done it totally dependent upon the background. I have sometimes been able to stretch just the background on the sides of the subject to solve this problem and sometimes it's possible to clone/add new background to make the image wider so you can get an 8x10 without losing any of the long end. This is very image dependent and is certainly not the preferred solution because it can be time consuming too.

Lastly, sometimes you can switch to a different print size 6x9 or 8x12 or go with a custom frame size that doesn't have the cropping problem.

papaross

Thanks
That's what I thought. I guess I was looking for a magic solution. By the way, I thought the URL showed up automatically. How do I make that happen?