Input needed for best way to shoot for printing 8x10??

[tender_moments]

I'm fairly new to photography, I have a shoot on Sunday with a friend who, she is going to be looking to print out 8x10's, headshots and full body. I usually shoot children, and the last time I did full body/ headshots (or tried atleast) alot of them were not able to be printed in 8x10. Can someone give me suggestions on the best settings, etc to achieve this??? Thank you so much for your help!

[Sam]

Hello, welcome to POTN

What was the problem with them last time? I am guessing you had to crop them a lot and the resolution wasn't there?

Most cameras on the market are able to take pictures that print just fine at 8x10. What are you shooting with? What size file are you creating? It will help answer your question.

[tender_moments]

Thanks. Some of them were chopping the top off entirely too much(without my cropping them at all), so I now know I need more space at the top, however some that had ample room(atleast I believe they did) were still choppy looking or would say the resolution was not satisfactory for printing that large of a photo. I am still working on my sizing of photos, I honestly do not know much about that.I am using a Rebel XSI.

[Sam]

Where do you do your printing at? Regardless of where I always crop my pictures to the format I am going to print before I send them. Then I know at least where the crop is from the start.

Make sure your shutter speed is faster than the length of your lens if it is not an IS lens. For example, if you are shooting at 50mm make sure your shutter speed is faster than 50.

Small depth of field is tough to work with unless you have some experience with it. Take some shots the way you plan and then a couple more stopped down to allow more Depth of Field.

Take your time and frame the shots in the viewfinder, if you rush this part the rest of your workflow isn't going to be as effective. It's tough to out the top of someone's head back on in photoshop.

Practice today or tomorrow with someone and see how it goes before you are under the gun. If possible go to the same location so you get a feel for where and what you want to shoot.

[edit] if you are comfortable processing RAW files shoot RAW to give yourself some room to adjust white balance and exposure. If not, use the largest jpeg setting you can.

[Ernst-Ulrich Schafer]

Why not offer a custom size, 10X7, 9X12 and matt and frame them for your cusotmer.

Ernst

[FlyingPhotog]

Simple: Just shoot wider and leave room for a 4:5 crop.

[D Thompson]

Simple: Just shoot wider and leave room for a 4:5 crop.
^^^Exactly^^^

Take a few minutes and test shots and learn how to crop "in-camera". Don't frame so close and you should be able to offer the 8x10" and 5x7" without chopping something important off.

[gonzogolf]

Call up a full frame photo in your processing software, use the crop setting and pick 8x10 See whats left over on the long side of the frame, Remember it and Dont let your subject fill that part of your viewfinder when you shoot. You used to be able to get inserts that would show that framing in the viewfinder of old 35mm and medium format cameras.

[Benji]

Ya gotta shoot looser at the top and bottom in vertical images and on the sides in a horizontal. See my example below. As you can see below I prefigured how much I would lose before I released the shutter. Cropping reduced the size from a 24.9 mg file to about 18 mg. You need a 6 mg to print an 8 x 10.

Benji

P.S. I also converted it to a B & W.

[Patrick]

I think you can buy a focusing screen with 8X10 lines to help framing. I don't think they are made for all models. Check B&H for focusing screens. But shooting 'loose' is the easiest and cheapest way. Practice with objects to get an idea of how 'loose' you need to shoot and it will eventually become second nature.

[suecassidy]

Trying to explain aspect ratios when I barely understand it myself, makes my brain bleed. I know how work with it, I just can't explain it well. Just don't crop so much in the camera, leave room to crop in photoshop. Also, when you go to print them, depending on where you get them printed, they usually will show you what an 8X10 crop will look like and allow you to adjust it before sending it to print...