I recently put together a small photobook using Shutterfly for some friends, and I noticed that many of my photos were being croppped due to printing diamension constraints (they print the typical 4x6, 8x10, etc). Now, on a lot of these pictures it didn't matter if I lost detail around the edge, they were mostly snaps with a center image.
It brought to mind the question, what do I do when I'm printing (or having someone else print) images that I've cropped in camera and I don't want to lose edges? My 20D gives a 3504 x 2336 image, but an 8x10 is 2400 x 3000 and a 4x6 is 1200 x 1800 (roughly).
I understand that for fine art photography you might print in "odd" sizes and crop the print to your desired size. But what if you're not sure of the future use for the photo (say stock photography). Do you intentionally leave dead space around your desired image?
Sorry, the question is clear in my head, but this reads like a dog's breakfast.
Cheers,
Alex
Posted by Dan Borzynski on September 6, 2006 at 4:39 PM
It took me a while to start doing this, but I try to shoot both ways - one tight and one loose. Digital is nice for this since the incremental cost is nil.
Alex, most professional labs offer a large variety of paper sizes to choose from so you don't have to crop your images. 12x18, 16x24, and 20x30 are common print size for 3:2 captures.
Discussion
2 repliesI recently put together a small photobook using Shutterfly for some friends, and I noticed that many of my photos were being croppped due to printing diamension constraints (they print the typical 4x6, 8x10, etc). Now, on a lot of these pictures it didn't matter if I lost detail around the edge, they were mostly snaps with a center image.
It brought to mind the question, what do I do when I'm printing (or having someone else print) images that I've cropped in camera and I don't want to lose edges? My 20D gives a 3504 x 2336 image, but an 8x10 is 2400 x 3000 and a 4x6 is 1200 x 1800 (roughly).
I understand that for fine art photography you might print in "odd" sizes and crop the print to your desired size. But what if you're not sure of the future use for the photo (say stock photography). Do you intentionally leave dead space around your desired image?
Sorry, the question is clear in my head, but this reads like a dog's breakfast.
Cheers,
Alex
Guy