Cropping photos before printing

[MartaJ]

Hi

I am new to photography and to the forum. I am looking for some advise on how to prepare photos before having them printed ideally without croppig too much. I like the way they are in-camera. Unfortunately I was told that at the desired size they would need to be cropped. On the other hand the smaller size images will not bring the desired effect when displayed. I will appreciate a quick advise

Thanks

Marta

 

[TCampbell]

This completely depends on the camera and the print format you choose.

Most DSLRs take a photo with a 3:2 ratio. This means if you wanted to print it as a 4 x 6" drugstore sized print, everything on your image would fit. It would also fit if you printed it as 8 x 12... but when's the last time you heard of an 8 x 12 print? 8 x 10 is the more typical size in that range. Hence a slight amount needs to be cropped in order to make it fit. The same would be true of a 16 x 20. 5 x 7 is yet another size that doesn't quite fit (though it does come close).

Essentially if the ratio of the print sizes matches the ratio of your sensor size then you won't need to crop. Otherwise some cropping will be required to make it fit.

If you really don't want to crop, you can have it printed with white border so that the entire image fits. But you probably won't find a standard frame that fits and will have to go to a custom frame shop to have it matted and framed and that can be quite a bit more expensive than using a standard size commonly-available frame.

 

[MartaJ]

Could something called 11:15 crop be a solution without cropping too much? My camera is Eos 400D with sensor 22,2x14,8 mm and I wanted a poster size print, not bigger than 16x20.

Marta Jeziorska

 

[Big Mike]

The size of the print shouldn't be an issue...as mentioned, it's the ratio of the output. If you want to have a 16x20 print (4:5 ratio) without borders, then you will have to crop something.

Aspect ratio (image) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia