Hello all,
I have a question about cropping photos and printing photos. Eventually, I would like to enlarge some of my photos to put on the wall in my house, but the more I think about it, the more confused I get.
I have stupidly been cropping my photos any which way (unconstrained), without thinking about ratios or anything like that and now I have realised that when I print them out some parts may be cut off.
What ratios do you use when cropping? What should I be using if I want to make them large and on the wall. There's also pixel size stuff I need to think about when enlarging pictures, but I don't know about that either. I've tried to watch some you tube videos on it but everyone has different advice and I don't really understand it.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thank you!
I crop for posting willy-nilly too. I also shoot willy-nilly without considering my camera's aspect ratio for printing too. Fortunately, I edit in Lightroom so my originals are there and when I need to print I can constrain my crop for the print size I want, which is very easy to do in Lightroom as the crop function shows you what each size will look like and you can move the crop box around. There's always a subtle difference when I print the image from how it looked with my 365 posting because of the paper sizes, but printing has certain constraints and they are different viewing mediums. I just move the crop box around until I get as close as I can to what I like.
I've never printed larger than an 8x10 as larger sizes intimidate me. Maybe someday. I'm not sure ... I have printed square, which is kind of fun as I got some Tiny Mighty frames in a multi-pack and did a gallery wall display. If you have some odd crops and no longer have the original files, you might consider looking at some of the less common printing sizes and see if they work for you.
I tend to crop photos unconstrained to whatever aspect ratio where they look the best, not to fit any pre-conceived aspect ratio. If your printer (or printer service) requires you to use a standard aspect ratio, you can add some white background in Photoshop so it's a standard aspect ratio and then trim off the excess after printing. Most printing services will do the trim if you ask them, or sometimes they have a large paper cutter available and will just let you use it. It'll cost you more to mat and frame, but you'll get exactly what you want.
I find that cropping 4x6 at 256 dpi seems to give the most pleasing results not only for posting but also for printing. Obviously screen viewing is not enhanced above 72 dpi but I sort of got into a pattern with 256 as I was printing too.
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I've never printed larger than an 8x10 as larger sizes intimidate me. Maybe someday. I'm not sure ... I have printed square, which is kind of fun as I got some Tiny Mighty frames in a multi-pack and did a gallery wall display. If you have some odd crops and no longer have the original files, you might consider looking at some of the less common printing sizes and see if they work for you.
As for aspect ratios, Here's a helpful article by Katie. http://www.boostyourphotography.com/2014/01/aspect-ratio.html
She used to post on 365, though she hasn't now for a few years. She also has some very helpful articles on what to expect from different printing companies. http://www.boostyourphotography.com/2015/07/best-prints.html
Hope that's some help. At least now you are aware and can start planning with future photographs. Good luck!