8x10 Enlargement Presented as 8x12

[wjastrow]

I shot a digital picture in NY for a present. I played around, did some very simple cropping, and then sent it off to my local Ritz camera for 1 hour printing.

My plan was simple: Have an 8x10 print made, buy a ready made frame, and deliver the present.

Instead, the 8x10 became an 8x12 which complicated matters.

The Ritz store explained that the 8x10 image was "cropped" (left and right) and to protect the image, stretched the photo to the 8x12 size. I appreciate what they did, preserving the intent of the image but I don't understand why this was necessary and am hopeful someone can explain this to me.

At the same time, I had an original (untouched, not cropped) image printed and it fit nicely in the 8x10 space.

Thanks in advance.

 

[darin3200]

Pictures don't enlarge to 8x10 perfectly, the length to width ratio is off. To enlarge to 8x10 they would have needed to cut a couple inches of the sides, instead the camera place just used wider paper so the whole picture would fit.

 

[Unimaxium]

The thing is the standard print sizes often aren't the same aspect ratio as film or digital sensors. 8x10 has a 1:1.25 aspect ratio, while 35mm film (and probably your digital image as well) has a 1:1.5 ratio. This means that whenever you try to print an image onto 8x10 you have to crop some of the edges off, or you can't fill the page with your image (i.e. you have letterboxing). 8x12, on the other hand, has the same 1:1.5 ratio, meaning that you don't have to crop anything. This is why Ritz printed your image as an 8x12 instead of handing you a cropped 8x10. If you want them to print an 8x10 for you that will fit into your frame, then crop it so it fits the aspect ratio and take your edited image file to them to print. Or you could just tell them to crop it for you (no guarantees that you'll like their crop though). Or you could go out and try to find an 8x12 frame. I'm pretty sure they do exist.

 

[kfoster]

If you cropped it to 8x10 they should have printed it 8x10.

As you know 8x10 is not 3:2 ratio that 35mm or digital shoots in. However, 8 x 12 is. So its understandable that if you submitted an unaltered picture they might print it as 8 x 12.

When you cropped the photo what size did you crop too? What settings are on your camera? My sony P&S will allow me to shoot in different ratios other then 3:2. Maybe you were shooting in something closer to 8x10 and then cropped to something closer to 8x12. Just some thoughts.

K

 

[markc]

Are you sure they said "stretched"? That would imply that they modified the ratio. More than likely they just printed it at full frame. If so, they actually did you a favor. Otherwise, they would have had to decide where to crop. Now you can use an knife and ruler to crop it exactly where you want.

If you want an 8x12 frame, I would try here: http://www.americanframe.com/
They have good price for great frames.

 

[Jeff Canes]

Those big automatic machines often stretch/crop prints to standard paper size of 8x12 (this a machine setting and can be changed)

What you need to do is after crop to 8x10 as you like, then use Canvas Size to add 2 inch of white making the new size of 8x12, and then just use cutting board at mini-lab to get the 8x10 you wanted

 

[markc]

If they actually stretched the print, I'd try and find a different place to go. That's asinine. Places are actually doing that?

 

[wjastrow]

Yes, they really did "stretch" the image.

Thanks very much for the detailed explanations about ratios; this is just one more thing I didn't know. My plan in future is to print a "sample" of the print on my inkjet first, then send it off for printing.

 

[Johnboy2978]

I had this problem when I began having my images printed as well. Once I found the problem (as you have learned here), I began to crop it with a program like Photoshop myself before I sent it off for printing. I made sure that that the image size was 8x10 or whatever size I wanted (and also 300 DPI) so that I knew what I had on my screen would appear the same on the paper. Now, there is no guess work (except for the tones occasionally in b/w prints) and I know what I see is what I'll get.

I also give americanframe and big thumbs up. I've been ordering frames for several months, and they never fail to give awesome results. They are the cheapest place on the net for Neilsen frames and will custom cut to a 16th of an inch at no extra charge.

 

[markc]

Yes, they really did "stretch" the image.

Thanks very much for the detailed explanations about ratios; this is just one more thing I didn't know. My plan in future is to print a "sample" of the print on my inkjet first, then send it off for printing.

Wow. I'd talk to a manager there. They should not be doing that.