How to avoid bad printing crop??

I had one photo printed from yorkphoto.com in (1) 4x6, (1) 5x7, and (1) 8x10.

The 4x6 turned out very nice, the 5x7 and 8x10 however were cropped and are missing part of my subject. Especially the 8x10.

Is there anything I can do to avoid this?

jmoe816 wrote in post #3328014
Is there anything I can do to avoid this?

Crop to the appropriate dimensions before uploading/ordering.

Each of those print sizes have different aspect ratios. Aspect ratio is the ratio of width to height.

4x6 is 2:3
5x7 is 5:7
8x10 is 4:5

The only thing you can do is like cdifoto said is to crop it yourself so that your not leaving it up to some machine to decide what to chop off. This means uploading a file for each aspect ratio, or only selection print sizes that match the aspect ratio of you file

But sometimes you can't crop without loosing something important. Then another option is to use a company that doesn't crop, but adds white space when the aspect ration of the file doesn't match the printed aspect ratio. I believe Winkflash gives you the option to add white space. They will put a white bar at the top and bottom or on the sides so the whole image fits in the print dimensions.

It is the same problem that Cinderella's Sisters faced. It just WONT fit, no matter what you do, 3x2 just is not 5x4.

The term is Aspect Ratio. The ratio of height compared to width.

Such as it is, you have only 4 choices:

Example 1) Print the whole shot in 3x2 ratio, get a 3x2 ratio frame and be done with it.

Example 2) Print it in 3x2 ratio on 5x4 ratio paper. This will result in un-printed margins on the top and bottom. Those are the white margins top and bottom that you see.

Example 3) Crop the shot to 5x4 ratio and print it. You will use all the paper, but, as you said, you lose some of the image. The parts that will be cropped off are the gray areas left and right.

4) Skew the original shot to 83.33% of the width, and print it on 5x4 ratio paper. This will distort the image, but some subjects complain that the camera adds weight anyway, so maybe it is a good choice.

So, until the Big Crunch a couple hundred billion years from now - when the Newtonian laws of physics break down and length is meaningless - you are stuck with these 4 choices.

Rad

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Thank you, this information has been very helpful!

Is there an easier way to crop to exact ratios in photoshop without using the crop tool and making the precise dimentions?

jmoe816 wrote in post #3330859
Thank you, this information has been very helpful!

Is there an easier way to crop to exact ratios in photoshop without using the crop tool and making the precise dimentions?

There is a drop down menu on the left (when you select the crop tool) with preset dimensions.

Or you can use the Marquee tool but I prefer the crop tool.

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