Cropping

Tom Potter

Hey Folks,

Shooting with the Nikon D300 & using Lightroom to process. I am not totally clear on the subject of cropping. I do have a basic understand, however. The D300, like most Digital SLRs, have a 3:2 ratio (1:5), likea 4 X 6 print. In Lightroom, you can select the aspect ratio. Should I select 3:2 when I want my clients to be able to put my matted ptints in the more readily available frame sizes? I want to have them avoid the extra expense of custom framing. So, should I use the 5:4 ratio, while is the equivalent of a common 8 X 10 print?

Actually, I did some further research since I posted the above. Am I correct that, I can print whatever size I want, and choose NOT to crop, which will, at times, cause white borders to appear on some prints. However, if I always mat my prints, I don't need to be concerned about the white borders, because the mat will cover them?

Thank you all

Tom

Andy

tom, upload your original size files - no cropping - if you MUST crop, do it in the same aspect ratio. You can update customer crops in Proof Delay - http://www.smugmug.com/help/proof-retouch-replace

If you or your customers choose 'no-crop' then there will be white borders on the print and you will need to matte over them or cut the print.

Tom Potter

Andy wrote: »

tom, upload your original size files - no cropping - if you MUST crop, do it in the same aspect ratio. You can update customer crops in Proof Delay - http://www.smugmug.com/help/proof-retouch-replace

If you or your customers choose 'no-crop' then there will be white borders on the print and you will need to matte over them or cut the print.[/QUOTE

Andy, by "upload your original size files", do you mean upload uncompressed and uncropped Jpeg pics to my galleries?

Art Scott

yes you can upload your full sized jpegs and uncropped to your gallery......but I prefer to crop to my vision of my work..............

All jpegs are compressed......now you have a choice of how much extra compression is given by lightroom or Photoshop.....
I always up load athe largest I can...depending on the processing software I am in at the time...any where from a #12
on up...if the software gives me the choice of a #100 as the largest then that is what I use.......do not settle for
saving a lesser quality jpeg, even if people tell that a #8 will print as well as a #15...do not settle.....Keep as much info
in all your files as possible.

Personally I do not like NOT cropping to a 4x5 aspect ratio and 99.9% of my offerings are in that aspect ratio....
so my norm is to offer 8x10, 16x20 and so on.....if a client specifically asks for something different then we talk and
they get what they want and all my cropping is done one file at a time....cause there is no one that knows what my
vision was when the photo was created......and the same goes for you........I also recommmend signing your work....
I found a font in PS that was very near my own handwrighting and use it ....... most are signed in a variation of Gold.

Good Luck

Tom Potter

Art Scott wrote: »

yes you can upload your full sized jpegs and uncropped to your gallery......but I prefer to crop to my vision of my work..............

All jpegs are compressed......now you have a choice of how much extra compression is given by lightroom or Photoshop.....
I always up load athe largest I can...depending on the processing software I am in at the time...any where from a #12
on up...if the software gives me the choice of a #100 as the largest then that is what I use.......do not settle for
saving a lesser quality jpeg, even if people tell that a #8 will print as well as a #15...do not settle.....Keep as much info
in all your files as possible.

Personally I do not like NOT cropping to a 4x5 aspect ratio and 99.9% of my offerings are in that aspect ratio....
so my norm is to offer 8x10, 16x20 and so on.....if a client specifically asks for something different then we talk and
they get what they want and all my cropping is done one file at a time....cause there is no one that knows what my
vision was when the photo was created......and the same goes for you........I also recommmend signing your work....
I found a font in PS that was very near my own handwrighting and use it ....... most are signed in a variation of Gold.

Good Luck

Hey Art,

Appreciate you taking the time to help me out. I totally agree about using the best quality possible. In Lightroom, when you export - you are given, among others, a choice to export "Original" of "Jpeg". If I choose "Original", ouldn't that mean the original RAW file? What I have been doing was to select JPEG and 3000 X 3000. What would advise here?
I totally agree about cropping first so as to display my vision. I do not want to put my vision with a bunch of extraneous stuff in my image for the viewer to see.

I have images with various aspect rations, unfortunately, because I did not consider it when I cropped some of my images. So, what would be your best advice for my images that are NOT 4 X 5?
Finally, for my future shots, would you recommend I should wide - including xtra "junk" I can remove when I crop, so as to retain a 4 X 5 ratio?]

Thanks,

Tom

digismile

Tom,

Unless you specifically want to limit a photo to a specific print size, Andy's original recommendation to upload the original file size still stands (or as much as a cropped version will provide).

Art prefers the 4x5 aspect ratio, but as mentioned in his post, this means a customer can print 8x10, 16 x 20, etc. I expect he uploads as much detail as he possibly can, from whatever remains after the crop.

In the Lightroom export, you are not required to put in a size. You only do this if you want to limit the maximum size. No sense in throwing away pixels if you don't have to!

Regards,

Tom Potter

digismile wrote: »

Tom,

Unless you specifically want to limit a photo to a specific print size, Andy's original recommendation to upload the original file size still stands (or as much as a cropped version will provide).

Art prefers the 4x5 aspect ratio, but as mentioned in his post, this means a customer can print 8x10, 16 x 20, etc. I expect he uploads as much detail as he possibly can, from whatever remains after the crop.

In the Lightroom export, you are not required to put in a size. You only do this if you want to limit the maximum size. No sense in throwing away pixels if you don't have to!

Regards,

Hey, Thanks....To sum up, make sure I'm following you....you're saying it's ok to crop, but, be sure to upload the largest file size possible, correct?

If I Export an Original in LR, that is the RAW file. I just tested this, and that's what I got. So, whatever format my "original" was, that's what I would export, I presume. Would agree that it makes sense to use the 4X5 aspect, if one wants to enable clients to use the less expensive more common frame sizes? That's what I'm aiming for.


Thx,

Tom

Art Scott

let me go a step farther .....i do as much processing as I can in LR3......then I go to Ps (always) there after all processing is done (except for sharpening in unsharp mask) I crop to my vision ( D300 )...I go to image > image size......now I make sure the only box checked is constrain proportions, as I do not want any interpolating going on.....so I get my file size as close to 4x5" as possible....right at 700 dpi......now I crop to exactly 4x5.....now we go to Genuine Fractals and uprez usually to 40x60 at my current dpi.......HUGE FILES...some where usually around 20-23.8 MB....now I go back to PS and sharpen in unsharp mask...save ........if someone really wants another size that I normally do not offer then I just re-crop the original jpg to that size....but when I tell them that they are going to have to go with customs mats and custom framing and the costs associated with that here in Wichita...they go with my offerings.....

this has been my way of getting my images ready for ever.....in the film days I had cardboard masks given to me by the processor for cropping and if I needed an odd (to me) size then I had an excellent copy neg made and cropped it the way the client wanted......

Tom Potter

Art Scott wrote: »

let me go a step farther .....i do as much processing as I can in LR3......then I go to Ps (always) there after all processing is done (except for sharpening in unsharp mask) I crop to my vision ( D300 )...I go to image > image size......now I make sure the only box checked is constrain proportions, as I do not want any interpolating going on.....so I get my file size as close to 4x5" as possible....right at 700 dpi......now I crop to exactly 4x5.....now we go to Genuine Fractals and uprez usually to 40x60 at my current dpi.......HUGE FILES...some where usually around 20-23.8 MB....now I go back to PS and sharpen in unsharp mask...save ........if someone really wants another size that I normally do not offer then I just re-crop the original jpg to that size....but when I tell them that they are going to have to go with customs mats and custom framing and the costs associated with that here in Wichita...they go with my offerings.....

this has been my way of getting my images ready for ever.....in the film days I had cardboard masks given to me by the processor for cropping and if I needed an odd (to me) size then I had an excellent copy neg made and cropped it the way the client wanted......

Great info Art! Thanks very much for your help with this. I really appreciate it!

Tom

Art Scott

My pleasure.......anytime. :~}}