Posted by wally emmert on July 26, 2008 at 9:46 AM
Here is a photo of a little bird with a large beautiful voice i took yesterday at Green Island Iowa.
The printing problem im having is that when i crop my photos then get them printed at a printer in davenport they are sometimes getting cropped to fit. How do i crop so i get everything in the photo i want.. Is it because im cropping free hand on picasa or cs3 and i might be too close to edges or at odd shapes such as too narrow or too tall or a combination...I'm sure you guys know the technical side of this alot better than i do. I'm really new to this but learning everyday, I would appreciate your help.
Posted by Dan Borzynski on July 26, 2008 at 11:33 AM
If you are cropping to a proportion of, say 7x10, and having it printed to 8x10, then some cropping is almost inevitable. There are a couple of choices:
First, if you want it printed at 8x10, but the proportions you are sending it at are 7x10, then do this. When you open a second canvas to paste the cropped peice on, first resize the canvas to 8x10, then paste your cropping on it, centered. You'll wind up with a white bar at the top and bottom in the final print, but retain your vision of the image. Remember, this is for printing purposes, not display purposes, so that extra blank space in the file doesn't really matter. Don't forget to flatten the files.
Clearly state "DO NOT CROP!" They may not like it, and tell you that it won't print to the paper sizes they have in stock. Well, yeah. Print it anyway. If they still don't like it, find another printer. Even Walmart can handle these instructions.
Crop it to 8x10 and give them that file. At least you'll have control over what shows up.
Talk to the lab technician and see what they say on the file proportions. Mass produced machine 4x6 prints from the film era were slight croppings from 35mm film. Even though the proportions were the same, it didn't matter. The slight croppings covered machine error, misalignment, operator error, etc. Since no one looked at their negatives and the viewfinders for the cameras generally weren't 100%, it really didn't matter anyway. (Note: Keep in mind I am talking about consumer level machine prints here.) Depending on the files you are providing and what exactly is cut off, this may be part of the issue.
Purchase a photo printer to do your own work. For your situation, this may not be the best answer, but you'll get control over what comes out on the final print.
The sizes mentioned above are examples only. You'll probably have the same issues regardless of the sizes you are printing at.
Posted by wally emmert on July 26, 2008 at 1:39 PM
thank you, that helps.
Posted by Bill Brennan on July 26, 2008 at 2:37 PM
Suggest that you take a cd to the printer with the images before cropping on it. Then you can work with the printer to determine how you need to crop your images so that no adjustments will be made in the printing process.
Your image of the song bird is great.
Bill Brennan
Posted by wally emmert on July 26, 2008 at 3:51 PM
Discussion
4 repliesThe printing problem im having is that when i crop my photos then get them printed at a printer in davenport they are sometimes getting cropped to fit. How do i crop so i get everything in the photo i want.. Is it because im cropping free hand on picasa or cs3 and i might be too close to edges or at odd shapes such as too narrow or too tall or a combination...I'm sure you guys know the technical side of this alot better than i do. I'm really new to this but learning everyday, I would appreciate your help.
First, if you want it printed at 8x10, but the proportions you are sending it at are 7x10, then do this. When you open a second canvas to paste the cropped peice on, first resize the canvas to 8x10, then paste your cropping on it, centered. You'll wind up with a white bar at the top and bottom in the final print, but retain your vision of the image. Remember, this is for printing purposes, not display purposes, so that extra blank space in the file doesn't really matter. Don't forget to flatten the files.
Clearly state "DO NOT CROP!" They may not like it, and tell you that it won't print to the paper sizes they have in stock. Well, yeah. Print it anyway. If they still don't like it, find another printer. Even Walmart can handle these instructions.
Crop it to 8x10 and give them that file. At least you'll have control over what shows up.
Talk to the lab technician and see what they say on the file proportions. Mass produced machine 4x6 prints from the film era were slight croppings from 35mm film. Even though the proportions were the same, it didn't matter. The slight croppings covered machine error, misalignment, operator error, etc. Since no one looked at their negatives and the viewfinders for the cameras generally weren't 100%, it really didn't matter anyway. (Note: Keep in mind I am talking about consumer level machine prints here.) Depending on the files you are providing and what exactly is cut off, this may be part of the issue.
Purchase a photo printer to do your own work. For your situation, this may not be the best answer, but you'll get control over what comes out on the final print.
The sizes mentioned above are examples only. You'll probably have the same issues regardless of the sizes you are printing at.
Your image of the song bird is great.
Bill Brennan