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Question: How come when I print my digital pictures they come out slightly cropped!?
I took some pictures with my camera (Canon sd1000) and had them printed at a Kodak Express Photo Lab!. They looked fine when I selected them, but when they were printed, they were cropped, so a bit from the top and bottom was cut off in each picture!. That really sucks cause some of my portraits the tops of their heads were cut off!. This has happened to before when I went to print them at Black's as well!.
I searched for answers online, but the all seem too technical!. Can anyone explain why this happens in layman's terms and how I can prevent this from happening!?Www@QuestionHome@Com
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
If you print them at Flickr, they use "digital sizes!." Maybe other places do as well!.
Prints from Flickr
I ordered a few from Flickr, just to see what they were like and I was very pleased!. You can run them under water and they wipe dry without any damage! The print quality was excellent!. I got 3-5x7's and 1-8x10 and the total, including shipping was $5!.27 or something like that!. They were $5!.20-something for sure!. You can also order them on-line and then pick them up at a local Target to save shipping charges, but one user on the Flickr forum said, "I ordered some prints from flickr and chose the 'pickup at Target' option and the quality is horrible! I ordered the same prints from flickr directly last week and they were great!. This time I was in a hurry, and they're awful!" I guess the quality at Flickr is controlled better than at a local Target!.
Since I don't know what you are really looking for, I'd say just try them and see!. You can get 4x6 for 15￠, 5x7 for 59￠, 8x10 for $1!.99, and 20x30 for $19!.95!. You can also get 4 wallet prints for 99￠!. They will not offer larger prints if the quality will not be satisfactory!. I've only got a couple where they offer 20x30, for instance, and they are 4000 dpi slide scans!.
Their minimum resolutions are 150 ppi:
Wallet 2!.5x3!.5 - 525 x 375 pixels (4 for 99￠)
4xD (4x6 or 4x5!.33) - 900 x 600 pixels - (15￠ or 20￠)
5x5 square - 750 pixels x 750 pixels - (99￠)
5xD (5x7 or 5x6!.6) - 1050 x 750 pixels - (59￠ or 65￠)
8xD (8x10 or 8x10!.66) - 1500 x 1200 pixels - ($1!.99 or $2!.15)
20x30 - 4500 x 3000 pixels ($19!.95)
Why does this happen!? Read the description under this tutorial - "Cropping Images"
http://www!.flickr!.com/photos/samfeinstei!.!.!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
Certain size images will need to be cropped!. Below is a list of sizes that are cropped and ones that are not!.
Not cropped:
4x6
8x12
16x24
Cropped:
3!.5x5
5x7
8x10
11x14
16x20
There are ways to avoid the auto cropping done by the processor!. You can resize your photo in an image editing program!. You can also use an online processor that lets you custom crop your photographs!.
Upload a picture to Ritz camera and choose custom cropping!. It will show you a black box around the photo where it will be cropped!. You can then drag the box around to where you want it!. They are not the cheapest and it wont solve all your problems but it will give you an idea of how it works and what you can expect!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
The size of the film, or of the digital sensor are not the same aspect ratio as standard picture sizes!.
Standard picture sizes are also not a standard aspect ratio!.!.!. ie
4x6 is 3/4 aspect ratio (this is the standard sensor aspect ratio)
8x10 is 4/5 aspect ratio (many older sensors use approx this aspect ratio)
Much like a tv letter box you have multiple options:
* blank edges
* crop the image to fit
* stretch the image to the frame
You could use an image editor to control the crop, just make sure the aspect ratio of the image you want printed matches the aspect ratio of the paper it will be printed on!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
What size did you have them printed!? I have a Canon powershot S3 IS and it also crops off some of the image when I get prints made!.
The file size on your camera could be slightly different than the size of the paper!. Lets say that the file size is about 11x16!. When you try to resize it to fit on an 8x10 piece of paper, it has some extra space that it has to cut off!. I learned this the hard way when I got prints for a competition last year!. One was cropped very badly!.
If the place lets you, try cropping the image to the right size before ordering prints!. This will help you make sure your pictures turn out right!.Www@QuestionHome@Com