cropping in PS to print

[crawdaddio]

I hope this is the right section for this. Please move if necessary.

I'm trying to resize/crop some jpegs in photoshop to print. It seems that no matter how large or small I make the image the autocropper (@8x10) won't allow me to fit the entire image in. Any help? Please? Oh yeah--photoshop CS, and I'm using the set feature of the crop tool to 8x10 @ 300ppi. This happens with the other settings as well such as 4x6, 5x7, etc.....I know I've got to be missing something simple here, help PLEASE!!!!

Thanks,
DC

 

[Big Mike]

What do you mean by "won't let me fit the entire image in" ?

What are you doing...step by step?

8x10 is probably not the same aspect ratio as your photo. So you will have to lose some of your image.

 

[crawdaddio]

I open the crop tool. Under the drop down I select "8x10 @ 300ppi" Then i try to crop the image, i want to keep the entire image, just resize the 'document size' at a constant 300ppi so the print tech won't crop any of my image out. the cropper automatically stops at about 2/3rds of the whole image, not letting me fit it all in.
Can I change the aspect ratio somehow so the whole image is cropped to fit an 8x10 print? Will the print look ok if I do that?

Thanks

 

[j_mcquillen]

Many of the 'standard' formats for print sizes such as 8x10, 5x7 etc don't match up to the shape of a full frame 35mm negative or slide, so unfortunately some cropping of the image will always occur.

The only way round this (other than distorting your image or cropping...) is to choose a 'full-frame' print size (try 10x6.5 instead of 10x8... not sure, but i think that's full-frame).

 

[crawdaddio]

Thanks guys. I'm obviously completely new to printing from digi. Trying to figure it out. This forum is great for this stuff, and I REALLY DO appreciate it. Any more help out there?

 

[Big Mike]

This problem has been around much longer than digital. I don't know where the 5x7 & 8x10 ratios came from...but they don't match 35mm film, so people using 35mm film have had to crop to fit those sizes.

As mentioned, besides the standard frames, there is no reason you have to crop to the standard sizes.

It can really be a ****er when you spend a lot of time working on an image, and then have to cut it up to fit the nice frame you want to use. I will often crop an image to the output size before I work on it...although I ran into problems last week when I ended up wanting to print at different sizes. I had to go back to the original file and make all the same changes...well actually I just pasted the middle section of the photo back into the original and then made the crop I wanted. I was lucky I could do that, most photos wouldn't work for that.

 

['Daniel']

Then i try to crop the image, i want to keep the entire image, just resize the 'document size' at a constant 300ppi so the print tech won't crop any of my image out. the cropper automatically stops at about 2/3rds of the whole image, not letting me fit it all in.

You're trying to resize not crop. Crop is cutting some of the image. Go to image resize and change the dimensions there, dpi wont change.

 

[cecilc]

....the cropper automatically stops at about 2/3rds of the whole image, not letting me fit it all in.
Can I change the aspect ratio somehow so the whole image is cropped to fit an 8x10 print? Will the print look ok if I do that?

You've got part of the answer in your question .....

Most digital image sensors (?? ALL !!?) produce an image with a 2-to-3 ratio (Hence the "2/3rds of the whole image" that you're experiencing in cropping). If you're trying to produce a 4x6 print, you can get the entire image in that 4x6 frame because 4x6 is a 2-to-3 ratio. However, if you're trying to produce a 5x7 or an 8x10 or an 11x14 .... none of those is a 2-to-3 ratio, so SOME of your image will not make the final print - only "2/3rds" of it will .....

Sure, you can force an aspect-ratio change to your image to fit those "odd" size prints (5x7, 8x10, etc), but it will look "distorted" and unnatural ..... It's best to determine the most important "view" of your image and crop the image to keep the aspect ratio "normal" .....

Hope that helps ....

 

[markc]

Use crop to get an 8x10 if the image isn't a 4:5 ratio. Use resize if it's already an 4:5 ratio (4"x5", 8"x10", 800px X 1000px, etc.) Make sure you are doing a resize and not a resample! As Daniel said, don't change the dpi. Don't worry about the 300 ppi thing. The printer driver will handle that without cropping your image or anything. If you send it a 600 ppi image and print using 300dpi on the printer, the driver will just have the printer use 1/4 of the the ink dots. It won't blow up or reduce the size. Just consider 300ppi on your image a minimum of what will probably print well, not a hard target. More is better, to a point. And you should often use the highest resolution the printer will print at anyway, which is often something like 1440dpi or more.

The relationship between digital image size (pixels), printed image size (inches), and resolution (dpi and ppi) can be confusing. This page might help.
http://www.bobatkins.com/photography/digital/digital_image_resizing.html

 

[crawdaddio]

Thanks everybody, you've all been very helpful.

I just got together with my local printer and he's straightened me out pretty good. I'm just gonna have to shoot to crop, as with 35mm.

thanks for the link mark

~DC---headed out to get my first digital prints!!