Probably the noobest of noob question, im actually kind of embarrased to ask this

So heres the deal, i'm completely selt taught with photoshop and feel I have a good grasp on editing. But I might have skipped some basics.

My question is related to sizing. What is the best "default" aspect ration? 8x10 and equivalent sizes respectively?

I would like to start doing more prints but i always find myself cropping to make things print right.
Thankfully lightroom has the crop option in terms of aspect ratios to make it easy.

So anyone have a good write up or just 2c on this?

Your camera shoot 3:2 natively so without cropping, you can do 4x6, 8x12, 16x24, etc...

In order to create 8x10s, 16x20s and so on, you need to make your images into a 4:5 aspect ratio.

Three ways to accomplish this:
1) Intentionally shoot for that format.
2) Shoot 3:2 wider than normal to allow for cropping.
3) Place a 4:5 image onto a 3:2 frame and "letterbox" it with dis-similar margins on the print.

If there are no objects in the frame that would look odd if they were altered, you can also transform a 3:2 image into 4:5 but some things may not look right when it's done.

FlyingPhotog wrote in post #10726705
Your camera shoot 3:2 natively so without cropping, you can do 4x6, 8x12, 16x24, etc...

In order to create 8x10s, 16x20s and so on, you need to make your images into a 4:5 aspect ratio.

Three ways to accomplish this:
1) Intentionally shoot for that format.
2) Shoot 3:2 wider than normal to allow for cropping.
3) Place a 4:5 image onto a 3:2 frame and "letterbox" it with dis-similar margins on the print.

If there are no objects in the frame that would look odd if they were altered, you can also transform a 3:2 image into 4:5 but some things may not look right when it's done.

Thanks bud, I have a grasp on way to achieve the dimensions I need, but I guess i'm just looking to start being more uniform.

So my question is what would be the best aspect ratio to go with if I wanna start unifying?

I did an engagment shoot from some friends, and they had a hard time getting their prints done in conventional print labs on top of finding prints. They were all uncropped from the camera aspect.

Looking at my website you'll see just in the slideshow all the images are different heights and widths and I guess that kinda drives me a little crazy in the OCD department

Well, if you have to hit a specific aspect ratio or size, I'd create a "frame" in Phtoshop (8" X 10" @ 240-300 dpi), paste each image into it and then scale the image as needed to fit those specific dimensions.

This way, you still have your original 3:2 aspect image in case you need it, but you have an alternative version that's 4:5. You could probably do the same thing with "Virtual Copies" in Lightroom.

I use DPP, I usually keep the RAW (3x2) and only generate JPEGs cropped to 1920x1080.
That's because I display the pics more often on the TV, than having them printed.