Cropping ratios

Swood

How should I be cropping my images in LR to prevent the white border added to the top and bottom of a photo. This happened recently and not sure why. I'm working on group photos now, and don't want to crop too tight and risk getting someones head cropped out in processing. How can I be sure to always use the correct crop ratio?

Ann McRae

Hi

All of your photos will have an aspect ratio to them, as do all print sizes. Your original photos will have an aspect ratio determined by your camera sensor. With most dSLRs this is 2:3 (or 1:1.5).

The 'common' print sizes (or at least the common frame sizes) all have different aspect ratios:

4x6 is 2:3
5x7 is 1:1.4
8x10 is 4:5 (1:1.25)

Photos are not resized when they are printed. That would distort them. Therefore they must be cropped to meet the 'common' print sizes. The crop tool in the shopping cart can be used by the customer, by clicking on adjust. This allows the customer to crop closer to the subject, or to rotate the crop from portrait to landscape or vice versa, but it does not change the aspect ratio of the print size chosen.

There are three ways for you to enable the customer to get the full image onto the print size that they have chosen.

1. At your shoot, shoot with plenty of room around the subject so that all crops are possible from your original. Don't precrop your photos before upload, and allow the customer to crop as needed in the cart.

2. Only price the print sizes that match the aspect ratio of your camera sensor, or your chosen crop. For a 2:3 sensor those are:

4x6, 8x12, 10x15, 12x18, 16x24, 20x30, 24x36

Setting the price for the other print sizes to $0 prevents customers from ordering those, and being forced to crop.

3. Use Proof Delay!!! You can check crops, make any edits and fix any crop issues.

ann