Ok everyone. There has to be a logical and simple answer to my problem that has me at my wits end. And I must admit, have taken limited initiative in trying to look up the answer.
In trying to resize my images for print, both increasing and decreasing to standard photo sizes ( 11 x 14, 13x19 primarily ), is there a simple way to do so without affecting the aspect ratio or having to crop your photo. I'm using CS3 primarily ( also go back to PSE 4 cause I can get smaller standard printing from it ( 8 x 10, 5 x 7 and lower, without affecting the scale or AR) and shoot RAW with a 20D.
Open Image Size options - Top Menu: Image > Image Size. Untick the "resize image" checkbox at the bottom. Now enter the width or height you want for the image and click ok.
By not checking the resize image checkbox the image is not resampled so there is zero effect on the quality of your file. You may need to crop slightly to ensure it fits the same aspect ratio of the final print though.
That's how I do it, I'm sure others are much more experienced at it as I don't actually print very often. Tristan
Posted by David Bostedo on July 25, 2007 at 11:31 AM
Mitch - You'll definitely have to crop your image to fit those aspect ratios (or get a skewed version). For instance, an image cropped at a 5x7 ratio could be made into a 10x14, but NOT an 11x14 without cropping. Now as far as where the cropping happens, you could do it, or there may be settings in your print driver. Mine allows me to crop the image to standard sizes and adject where the crop occurs.
Springboarding off of David's comments, the 20D has a 2:3 aspect ratio: 3504 x 2336 pixels. You can fit this to any 2:3 aspect ratio print size without cropping or changing the ratio (e.g., 8x12, 11x16.5, 13x19.5, etc). Any deviation from these sizes, and you have to make a decision about whether to keep the image whole and adjust the aspect ratio - or - crop the image to fit the apsect ratio of the print. Note that even standad sizes like 11x17 require a little stretching or cropping; they're close to 2:3, but not exact.
I typically choose to crop so as not to risk affecting the image quality. Even if the impact on quality is not really noticeable, I don't like going to all the trouble of making and processing an image only to then stretch it to fit a "standard" print size. Assuming no critical elements are being lost, I'd much rather crop a little to match the print's aspect ratio than stretch the image to match the print's ratio.
Don't resize - just use Qimage. It will take care of optimizing the image for the given print size. The image quality will be much improved over anything you will get out of Photoshop.
Darn the bad luck, I was afraid of this. Thank everyone for their insight and information! I guess a possible way around this might be to shoot smaller panos to compensate?
No, I wouldn't shoot smaller panos - the goal is to get as much information in the image as possible, using the largest file size and best quality options available on the camera you are using. To open up a pandora' s box for you, I would look into shooting raw format, which allows the greatest recovery of image information as it does not do any in-camera processing to what the sensor records. This way you have the options of applying adjustments, cropping etc with the least amount of quality loss. If you are shooting panoramas, then take a look at panotools at http://panotools.sourceforge.net/ for software to to correct lens distortion, panorama stitching and panorama viewing.
Discussion
6 repliesIn trying to resize my images for print, both increasing and decreasing to standard photo sizes ( 11 x 14, 13x19 primarily ), is there a simple way to do so without affecting the aspect ratio or having to crop your photo. I'm using CS3 primarily ( also go back to PSE 4 cause I can get smaller standard printing from it ( 8 x 10, 5 x 7 and lower, without affecting the scale or AR) and shoot RAW with a 20D.
Thank you in advance for any input!
By not checking the resize image checkbox the image is not resampled so there is zero effect on the quality of your file. You may need to crop slightly to ensure it fits the same aspect ratio of the final print though.
That's how I do it, I'm sure others are much more experienced at it as I don't actually print very often. Tristan
I typically choose to crop so as not to risk affecting the image quality. Even if the impact on quality is not really noticeable, I don't like going to all the trouble of making and processing an image only to then stretch it to fit a "standard" print size. Assuming no critical elements are being lost, I'd much rather crop a little to match the print's aspect ratio than stretch the image to match the print's ratio.