same question, different day (I'm sure)

ok folks,

soccer pic taken w/ 20D. Printed on 8.5x11 photo paper. I want an 8x10 pic instead. Do I crop or resize? Actual pic dimensions appear to be 8x12 ratio. Yes, I'm a newbie...a freshman...a rookie...an idiot....humor me please.

I'm sure you veterans get tired of seeing this question.

Hi. I would first lock the photo compositon, whether I would crop it or not depends on the image rather than the printing results that I want from it.

Resizing is the best way for me. I go to 8x10, print on a nice ultra photo paper, and then simply cut the edges. Just gotta find a creative way of fitting that photo in an 8x10 space, something photographers love to do (we do it all the time, grab something and frame it into something smaller, for example taking a picture).

Post the original image, perhaps that might enlighten others to post as well.

Cheers,

Scissors. Why make things complicated?

Here's the requested post. Mind you, it was shot all the way out at 300mm on a promaster 70-300 lens. Was trying to get as much bokeh as possible. 5.6 aper doesn't produce much of that.

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Albert, you need to think in terms of the aspect ratio - the length of your image divided by its width. It doesn't really matter whether you think in terms of pixels, centimetres, inches, or whatever (so long as you use the same unit for both dimensions).

Pictures come out of your 20D at 3504x2336 pixels, so the native aspect ratio is 3504/2336 = 1.50. If you want to print at 6x4 or 12x8 then that's the same aspect ratio and so you can print the whole image.

But if you've cropped your picture then the aspect ratio might not be 1.50 any more. And other common print sizes (e.g. 7x5, 10x8, ...) don't have the 1.50 ratio either. I know you can do the sums yourself, but just as an illustration:

• 1.25 = 10x8
  
• 1.33 = standard PC monitor
  
• 1.40 = 7x5
  
• 1.41 = A5, A4, A3 etc. paper
  
• 1.44 = 11.5x8
  
• 1.50 = 12x8, 6x4, standard uncropped photo

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just dont run with them.....

Since the 20D shoots at 2x3, resizing to 8x10 is not going to work. Cropping is your best bet. On this photo all you will lose is some at the top and bottom.

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Stewart & Vet,

thanks a bunch for the help. This makes much more sense now. And it wasn't even that complicated to begin with. (told you I was an idiot )

I'll just have to compose with some space at the top or bottom or both to compensate.

Oops!

thanks to everyone else who donated advice also!