Digital Prints Problem

[pvdiamon]

I just received my prints from Wal-Mart. They were fine, uploaded Monday, received Thursday using priority mail. They looked great EXCEPT some were excessively cropped. Is there some way to view how the prints will "really" appear after printing? When uploaded, even if I resized to 4x6, they appeared fine on my monitor using Paint Shop 7.04. I just realized I posted this in the wrong section. SORRY, I will re-post under techniques.

[mlfrancis]

There will be some cropping no matter what you do when you have pictures printed. Probably the best thing is to crop them yourself at home so they have the correct ratio of lenght to width. Some of the online services will let you pick where the the cropping will occur after you upload the shots. 4x6s will have the most cropped, 5x7 a little less, and 8x10s even less. You camera probably has a ratio of 1:1.3 whereas printed shots are:

height:length
4x6 1:1.5
5x7 1:1.4
8x10 1:1.25

There is probably a better way of doing it, but I typically just crop them down before sending them in. That way I know exactly what I am going to get back.

I think a great function that I would love see added to my camera is a way of matting out the display so I can see exactly what it will look like if I know I want a 4x6 or 8x10 print. Then you can compose the shot with the end result in mind.

I'm no expert, actually a beginner, so if I have said anything wrong, someone please correct me.

I haven't seen anyplace that will resize the shots without cropping. Maybe someone else has.

Happy shooting.