Resizing dimensions for printing - Possible?

Hi folks,
Now that I'm getting a lot of images going through CS5 I'd like to resize them properly should the client want to print them elsewhere.

I do a lot of stage stuff and a lot of the time (in fact most of the time) the images end up being cropped due to the speed at which they move etc.

Now, I don't want to mess around with the file size smaller than I need to, just to keep the dimensions consistent.

I currently print on 6x4 , 5x7, A4 and A3 and would like to know if there is a way to crop so that the image is in relation to these sizes overall so that if I go on paper smaller than A3 it should print out right rather than having a little bit of white at one end. I can stretch the image to fit but then I could lose a part of someones head etc.

All the A series papers have the same aspect ratio - 1:1.414 (the square root of 2), so one crop fits all of them. 4x6, or the metric equivalent 10x15, is however 1:1.5 and 5x7 is 1:1.4 (quite close to the A series.) The only thing you can do is to crop for the biggest ratio, 1:1.5, but loosely, leaving room for a second crop.

I never go to extra effort for files "just in case they want to print elsewhere". They get 3:2 ratio, same as they came out of the camera, if they want a different ratio there are plenty of software tools and print kiosks to do it for them. If they want it done for them they pay my print price.

Is there a way of setting up photoshop to fix the crop dimensions for 3:2? I know how to do it for pixels but if I have a 10mp picture and a 21mp one they wouldn't tally.

Gel wrote in post #10179892
Is there a way of setting up photoshop to fix the crop dimensions for 3:2? I know how to do it for pixels but if I have a 10mp picture and a 21mp one they wouldn't tally.

In the crop tool settings at the upper left (at least on my setup), there is an arrow that if you click it opens a "dimensions pick" box and you can either select a common aspect ratio or more specific dimensions (such as 8x10). I believe that once you have set an aspect ratio it should be sticky, but I'm not positive about that and can't check that at this time (work day and such).

In cs4 click on the crop tool then type in the boxes up top. Eg 8 in 12 in or 11 in 14 in. Type in what you want to crop it at then crop.

tim wrote in post #10178749
I never go to extra effort for files "just in case they want to print elsewhere". They get 3:2 ratio, same as they came out of the camera, if they want a different ratio there are plenty of software tools and print kiosks to do it for them. If they want it done for them they pay my print price.

I'm not even a photographer, but I've been a businessman for 35 years and I absolutely agree with Tim on this.

Gel wrote in post #10179892
Is there a way of setting up photoshop to fix the crop dimensions for 3:2? I know how to do it for pixels but if I have a 10mp picture and a 21mp one they wouldn't tally.

You can enter a value in inches ("in") or centimeters ("cm"). If you just type a number, it will default to what unit you have set in the prefs. In your case probably pixels.
Just make sure you leave the "resolution" box empty, otherwise you'll resize while cropping.

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You can also make your own presets for the crop tool drop-down list. If you don't want to resample when you crop make sure that you leave the Resolution box empty when you make the preset as per Rene's instruction above.

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Nice idea Bob.
I never looked at that before,
Thanks

Cool, works for me!