Question About Cropping

[chrisburke]

I have some pictures that I will be printing. They are shot in RAW so they are huge. When I do a crop, so I crop it to 8x10 (or whatever size I want) or should I just crop it to whatever I want??? I'm guessing if I want them to print properly I should do 8x10 or whatever size I plan to print them in??

 

[Big Mike]

Before sending a file for printing, I crop it to the dimensions that I want and also make sure that it has 300 pixels per inch of print. So if I want an 8x10, I send a file that is 2400x3000.

I save that file as filename-8x10, so that I do not save over the original image.

 

[chrisburke]

thanks, thats what i was doing to, i just wanted to make sure it was the norm

 

[Early]

Before sending a file for printing, I crop it to the dimensions that I want and also make sure that it has 300 pixels per inch of print. So if I want an 8x10, I send a file that is 2400x3000.

I save that file as filename-8x10, so that I do not save over the original image.

That's a lot of math for a pea brain like myself. Wouldn't a simple 'make to fit' command suffice?

 

[andrew99]

I always crop to the correct aspect ratio. 8x10, 5x7 and 4x6 are all different shapes, so it's better to crop them yourself instead of letting the lab do it. 8x12 is the same ratio as 4x6, so if you can't crop, you can use this size, but I've never seen 8x12 fames, so I usually use a custom mat and larger frame for that size. Another alternative is to add black borders on the sides of your photo, this way you can change the aspect ratio without cropping (just like how TV's add black bars to the top and bottom of the screen when you're watching a wide screen movie on a regular TV).

BigMike -- Question for you regarding the PPI. If your crop is smaller than 2400x3000 (or you have a 6 MP camera like mine that outputs 3008x2000 ), do you upsize/resample to 2400x3000? Or just leave it as it is?

 

[Big Mike]

That's a lot of math for a pea brain like myself. Wouldn't a simple 'make to fit' command suffice?

In Photoshop, you can use the crop tool to crop and set the proper resolution. When you select the crop tool, the info bar has spaces for the horizontal and vertical size, as well as the resolution. If you enter values for these fields, the crop tool will be constrained to the proper ratio and the file will be resized when you OK it.
There is also a list of presets, with all the common paper sizes at 300 PPI.

Question for you regarding the PPI. If your crop is smaller than 2400x3000 (or you have a 6 MP camera like mine that outputs 3008x2000 ), do you upsize/resample to 2400x3000? Or just leave it as it is?

I will resample/upsize if the native image doesn't have enough pixels. Just like the aspect ratio, I prefer to do it myself, rather than leaving it up to the printer/lab.