Good to know stuff!

I've been wanting to post on this subject for some time now, but honestly have never had enough time to get to this. This subject is on print sizes. This is probably the biggest question I get asked...how will (blank) picture work in (blank) size? This is where it can get tricky.

Have you ever noticed when you ordered an enlargement of a certain picture... chunks of the picture are missing? I remember the first time I really noticed it...I ordered a picture of my hubby, to only find my husband's head had been cut off drastically. And, there was plenty of room to crop from the bottom. Honestly, I really hadn't given much attention to the cropping that occurs when enlargements are created before this time. How could this have happened? Could I have changed the crop?

So, here are a few of the nuts and bolts of enlargement cropping.

Picture sizing is basically in 2x3 inche format. For example:
Here is a standard 300 dpi image...sized 8x12. When you compare it to the 4x6 image, no cropping occurs. Why? The 4x6 size can enlarge to 8x12 in the 2x3 inche format.
Here is the standard 8x12 image compared to the popular 8x10 image. Notice the cropping...2 inches off the top and bottom. Fortunately, there wasn't much of the image lost in this enlargement. Continue to browse down to check out other comparisons of the 8x12 image to other popular enlargement sizes.


While these pictures aren't REALLY a great example of the composition that can be lost in the enlargement cropping process...they do give a good example of the cropping that does occur. I also want to add that I CHOSE the crop for each enlargement.

When my pictures, your portraits, are being printing through a lab other than mine...this HUGE detail can be overlooked by the printer. I can, almost, guarantee it will be overlooked when printed through your local stores. Why? Printers in local stores are meant for mass production...insert disk and print pictures...and print them in one hour. Where as the professional printer will look at each image and choose the best crop for the enlargement. {note: I can only guarantee the crop when I process the order through my lab}

So, next time you place an order for an enlargement of a standard 2x3 inche image format, notice the crop and see how much you lost. This is a little detail you will want TOTAL control of!