Please-Need Help-Asap

[elsaspet]

Hi all, I hope this problem can be solved. I have no idea what this means. I just got a letter back from Jordan's mom. She sent her photos to MPIX to get some enlarged prints and she sent me this letter. How do I fix this for her???? Jordan has a deadline for a pageant:

Cindy, got the pics back, 8 x 10 from mpix but there is a problem, they cut a lot of her head off! I wrote them about it and the sent this, do you know Cindy, what it means? Susan

With digital photography, you can solve the aspect ratio problem entirely, by uploading images with an aspect ratio that matches your intended print size.

Aspect ratios for Mpix prints:

For a 4 x 6" print: Your image should have an aspect ratio of 1:1.5
For a 5 x 7" prints: Your image should have an aspect ratio of 1:1.4
For an 8 x 10" print: Your image should have an aspect ratio of 1:1.25

 

[Kenh]

It sounds like the digital image was larger then the output print size, therefore some of it was cropped off. Crop the image yourself to the output size you want before uploading the file. Most, if not all image editing programs will let you do this.

This is typical for an 8x10. As an example: If I am not mistaken, the aspect ratio for 35mm film is 2:3. Therefore an 8x12 would be a full frame image, so an 8x10 would have 2 inches of the long side cropped off in printing.

Hope this is helpful

 

[Johnboy2978]

It sounds like you and I share a similar problem. I have had a few 8x10's that I sent to Walmart.com for developing. The first ones came back great, but they were also landscape images that were not noticable if they were cropped. Then, I sent in some that I spent a lot of time on in Photoshop with making borders, titles with rasterized text, etc. When I got those back you'd think I sent them to the butcher. Tops, bottoms, or sides of the print were just lopped off, despite the fact that the image was exactly 8x10 or 5x7 when it came out of PS depending on the size I wanted. I then started checking the print preview after uploading them to walmart and it shows that it will be cropped, and I just cant understand why it would be cropped if it is EXACTLY 8x10 or 5x7.

So I'm going to hang back and anxiously await an answer with you. I have a dozen things that I'm waiting to print. I know there is an easy fix to this.

 

[Digital Matt]

If you are just sending them the full res file, you are leaving it up to them to crop it. Before you send, open your image in photoshop, select all, and copy. Then make a new document, and make it 8x10 @ 300dpi, or 5x7, whatever.

Paste the photo in, and move it around until you find a desireable crop. Resize it if necessary by selecting the move tool and hitting Ctrl+T (free transform). Make sure that Mpix wants files at 300dpi. Most likely, that's the case.

 

[Big Mike]

When sending files to be printed, you should always set the aspect ratio that your prints will be. If you don't, someone at the printing stage will have to make that decision. 35mm film and quite a few digital cameras don't have the same aspect ratio as what we think of as standard photo sizes 5x7, 8x10 etc.

Before I take a file to be printed, I make sure that the PPI (pixels per inch) is set to 300...I think that photo printers prints at 300 DPI. I also make sure that I have cropped the photo to the size that will be printed. Here is how I do it with Photoshop...

After editing my photo, I open a new, blank canvas. You can change the settings or just pick your size & resolution from a list. 5x7 & 300 PPI for example. Then I go back to my photo and select all...copy...and then paste it on to the blank canvas. I stretch the pasted photo to better fit the new canvas and then move it around to fine tune the crop.

As for problems at Wal-mart...what did you expect? :roll: sometimes they do a good job but some kid making minimum wage might not care all that much about your photos...or they don't have the knowledge to do it right. However, if you ask them to do it again, and again until they get it right...they just might.

*edit* Ah Matt...you beat be to it.

 

[Johnboy2978]

Thanks Matt, that seems to work for me, atleast when I preview it. I still don't get why it works though (the 8x10 that I sent first didn't work, but then I sent an 8x10 and it worked fine?). Anyway, thanks for the tip.

Elsa, hope you have the same success. This problem has been driving my batty for a while now, I'm glad you asked the question!! Good luck to you!

Thanks Mike for your response as well.

 

[elsaspet]

Oh thank God you guys! What would I ever do without all the help, ehem, bailing out you guys do for me?I had about 40 hours in post and people were telling me I pretty much had to go back to the original images and start over again.
I was freaking out. LOL.

 

[Sergiozal]

I just use the retangular selection tool, feather "zero" with aspect ratio 10x15 (or 15x10) select the desired area, move the selection as I wish, crop the image, and that's all

 

[ksmattfish]

When I worked at a photo lab we ran into this all the time with 35mm enlargements. As has been said, a full frame 35mm shot enlarges to 8"x12", not 8"x10". Even 5"x7" crops some (it needs to be 5"x7.5" for the 2:3 ratio). I assume most digital has a similar ratio to 35mm.

Every year there was a 4H (agricultural club for kids) photo contest. Of course almost everybody was using 35mm (before the digital revolution). Their instructors would give them the good advice "get closer, fill the frame", but the rules specifically stated that entries must be 8"x10" which means some is going to need to be cropped off (and that sucks if you filled the frame when composing). I never could understand why they wouldn't let the kids enter 8"x12" prints, but I guess rules are rules.

 

[Sergiozal]

I assume most digital has a similar ratio to 35mm.

Only digital SLR's have the same aspect ratio than 35mm, wich is 1x1,5.
The compact digitals have the "computer" aspect ratio: 800x600, 1024x720... etc, i.e. 1x1,33.

This is why the prints in normal photographic paper crop the pictures.
Now that I understood it, I crop it myself to 1x1,5 ratio before send to the lab, or I ask the lab to shink the picture to include everything in the paper, then you have blank stripes on the sides of the copy, then you can crop the paper. It is your choice.

The problem is always when you let the lab to do it automatically