Help: cropping and printing

Coleman Photography

Hey all, i have a few questions about cropping and printing. i recently did a shoot where and had to print the pictures and in post processing i zoomed and cropped a few of the images. and then once i went to print them, they were not anywhere close to the right size to print. for example one picture that needed to be printed 8x10 would not work. what is a good way to make sure that when i go to print that all images with print the right way.

Miguel Delinquento

More info needed
You should provide more details about what you mean by the print not working. That could be interpreted to mean a lot of issues.

I'm going to assume you are talking about fitting the image on screen to output on paper. My guess is that when you cropped you maintained the inherent 2:3 aspect ratio that the camera follows. Unfortunately to fit a 2:3 dimensioned image into an 8x10 frame requires unbalanced cropping. It's geometry. I prefer using 8x12 or 9x6 to maintain the "full frame" though which I composed the shot.

M

Coleman Photography

yes u are correct about my probolem can someone please help me with this problem. when i go to crop my photos how should i do it so that they will print to fit same as on comp screen

Miguel Delinquento

Take ownership of your problem please
I tried to do that. You need to be a little more proactive about communicating what you do and do not understand about relevant issues to your problem--like aspect ratio, geometry, and the software tools that you are using.

If 8x10 is your desired output, then you have to draw that rectangle around that desired geometry. You will lose part of the image, if your starting point is a 2:3 frame.

M

Coleman Photography

Im sorry, yes i am using photoshop cs2 for my editing. In general i just need to know how to go about cropping each and every pic that i edit. for diff crops. thanks for the help.

Art Scott

Coleman Photography wrote:

Hey all, i have a few questions about cropping and printing. i recently did a shoot where and had to print the pictures and in post processing i zoomed and cropped a few of the images. and then once i went to print them, they were not anywhere close to the right size to print. for example one picture that needed to be printed 8x10 would not work. what is a good way to make sure that when i go to print that all images with print the right way.

here is what i do to get ready to print a photo:.................

I get all PP done in PS.....then i go to image and clik on image size....making sure the litle box that says keep proportion constrained is ticked........I change my DPI to 300 or more {somewhere between 300 and 300 dpi depending on camera's MP} to get it as close to 8 X 10 as possible....then I either crop to make it 8x10 or I go into Genuine Fractals and uprez to 8x10 and then it is off to the printer......

lynnma

Coleman Photography wrote:

Im sorry, yes i am using photoshop cs2 for my editing. In general i just need to know how to go about cropping each and every pic that i edit. for diff crops. thanks for the help.

Don't forget that your cropping tool has different size crops to choose from. Thats another easy way to know it's gonna be 8x10 or 5x7 etc.

Coleman Photography

lynnma wrote:

Don't forget that your cropping tool has different size crops to choose from. Thats another easy way to know it's gonna be 8x10 or 5x7 etc.

Wow I did not know that thank you so much that should make things so much easier. A lot of my work has not made it to the printer, but now I'm starting to get a few jobs and such and have been running into this problem.

Miguel Delinquento

The question I have for you is why are you cropping down to 8x10 and 5x7? You are going to lose part of your picture, or the resampling from say a 9x6 "full frame" dimension to 8x10 is imperfect. As mentioned earlier, why not use 8x12?

In my experience, most clients really don't care.

M