I only usually print photos for personal use and am not sure about the effects of cropping on printing. I just took some engagement photos for my cousin and was editing them, and I had a slight panic attack wondering if when I cropped them I was screwing them up for printing!! This probably seems like a really silly question, but I am new to this and was looking for any tips.
When I crop the photos, do I need to be cropping them for a certain size print or keeping the original proportions or with no restrictions?? Any help is greatly appreciated!
If you are editing photos for others to print, portraits, engagements, weddings, etc, yes I would keep the aspect ratio in mind. I recently shot my family renuion, and cropped away willy nilly, and it did not end well when my mother ordered prints with heads cut off so I had to go back and re-crop everything 2:3/ 4x6 ratio. My friend does weddings and says he prefers to crop 4x5 ratio assuming people will order 8x10s. Other people say you should always shoot wide in case people want many of different sizes so you don't cut anything important off, but I have a hard time doing that.
@jennverr It does help! Thank you! Willy nilly...exactly what I've just done!! Not sure which ones they'll like and what they'll want printed so I'm quite nervous now!!
@tryeveryday I wouldn't do it to all of them, but I would take what you think are the best of the pics and crop them a few ways? You could give them files that are "suitable for 5X7" "suitable for 8X10" etc. and make it easy on them..and perhaps quiet your nerves. If some pics just won't work in some crops, they won't be in that crop's folder!
I've been taught not to crop and to try to get the shot right in the camera. When cropping the resolution can be impacted some- depending on the amount of cropping which in turns can impact the quality of the print. Cropping is like magnifying. If you have enough pixels in your camera, for example I have 24megapixel, I can get away with it ( to a degree) and still produce 8x10 with no problems. I guess to help solve your issue I would preview a shot to see if how it looks at the size you desire. Perhaps taking your cropped shots to a photo kiosk you could see what the outcome would be before ordering prints. Not sure I'm helping here :). I've just learned to avoid cropping.
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hope this helps!