fad2000

Hello everyone. First time with a question. When I crop and post pictures, they get cut off when you preview the photo using Shutterfly, York, etc.

I know there are set printing sizes (3x5, 5x7, etc.), but how do you keep the cropped picture when ordering prints. How do you avoid chopping off essential pieces of the picture.

I just did a photo shoot and posted them on Shutterfly. Some of my final edited photos get destroyed when sharing with my loved ones.

Do all photo sites and printing facilities require photos to be close to the formatted sizes they use to display and print?

Must I avoid chopping photos into irregular sized formats?

wteffey Loc: Ocala, FL USA

Your camera is producing files that are not shaped the same as the prints you are ordering. One camera I have produces an almost square image, the other a "widescreen". And this is so critical, believe it or not, a photo cropped to 5x7 will not print 4x6 without further cropping! I use Sam's club, and download the full size edited file. After downloading, the interface will offer me the full range of print sizes. If I select a print size that requires "cropping" the interface will notify me and give me the option to make the crop. If I do not make the necessary crop the machine will do it for me, and probably cut off something important. The interface will also notify me if the print size selected is too large to print well. By downloading the full size file I can return later and print a different size (after cropping of course) without another download. Be aware that i high megapixel file can take a while to download

fad2000

Interesting......Thanks much for the info.

willet

Picasa a has a feature that will allow you to take your original shot and crop to many popular sizes, and manuel as well. Then you caan ship out or take to Costco or other for final printing.

coco1964 Loc: Winsted Mn

Wll help avoid problems if you wait and crop in Shutterfly versus cropping in Picassa......

fad2000

Sounds good..........Thanks.

RMM Loc: Suburban New York

Don't know about other programs, but Photoshop lets you preset the crop tool, e.g., to 5x7 inches. You can then create and manipulate a crop, which will show you what the photo will look like as a 5x7 within the crop frame, wherever you move it or alter the area being cropped. When you're happy with the way it looks, crop. Don't like the result? Edit -> Undo and try again.

You sort of have to remember to clear your settings when you go back to unrestricted cropping. Until you do, everything will crop to 5x7!

marcomarks Loc: Ft. Myers, FL

If you want a 4X6 print you can't give them a cropped 4X5 inch file. If you want a 5X7 print you can't give them a cropped 7X7 inch file. You must crop your photo files to exactly every size you want to print or they will print goofy with white on one end or part of the photo missing because it was outside the printable paper size.

I always save my original virgin files on hard drive before doing anything else and never crop or alter them under those file names because you can't go back to the original sizes after you butcher them.

Then I resize one photo to approximately the size of the largest print I want to create - let's say 11X14 or something near it - maybe 11X17 or whatever follows the same vertical and horizontal ratio as the original file. And I make sure it's 300dpi for best print quality.

Then I must figure out how to get rid of the other 3 inches to get the 17 side down to 14. Sometimes that is cropping 1.5 inches off each end, or 1 inch off one end and 2 off the other, to get a proper composition that is the correct size. Then you save it under a different name plus add 11x14 300dpi to the name of the file so you know what size the file is created to be without having to open it and find out.

Then you start over and create an 8X10 size. You can either do that from the original virgin file or you can start with the 11X14 you just got done with and reduce it with resize and crop a little after that. Then save it with the same name but add 8X10 300dpi to the name instead.

You don't have to make a file for every size paper unless you plan on printing or selling prints of a variety of sizes.

Irregular sizes will NEVER print properly because paper sizes are standardized, mattes to put photos in are pretty much standardized unless you have them custom made, and frames follow somewhat the same size standards.

fad2000

Very useful information.

robert-photos Loc: Chicago

I upload my photos to my Smug Mug site in mainly two ratios....1:1 (square) or 3:2 (rectangular). The exceptions are panoramas which are varied.

Upload resolutions support print sizes of 24 x36 minimum.

Those that order prints can order any standard or odd size they want. If the size they order doesn't conform to a standard ratio (say they want a 3-1/2x5 instead of a 4x6)
my shopping cart posts a warning and suggests a crop which can be buyer modified at checkout.

I don't use Shutterfly but I imagine that most other services have some sort of solution to this common problem.

If you are married to one service it is always best to ask them for help and you should get it.

Good luck :thumbup: