Photo ratios and printing: There's lots of questions about going from 4x6 to 5x7 for example, how to do this without losing some of the original pic. What with computers and pixel...

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

There's lots of questions about going from 4x6 to 5x7 for example, how to do this without losing some of the original pic. What with computers and pixel juggling it seems that you could just resize from one to the other and voila, it's done. Doesn't work that way. I've tried and tried and always lose something in the transition.

Finally figured out that the only way to do it is to crop your original to a specific ratio and not let the printer interface do it. Then what you see on the monitor is what you get in the final print. Otherwise you'll be surprised by what comes out of the printer. If there's another way to do it, please advise. Thanks in advance.

zigipha Loc: north nj

can't - either need to distort to squish all the stuff in or need to loose something to fit the space

Leitz Loc: Solms

gvarner wrote:

There's lots of questions about going from 4x6 to ... (show quote)

Select "Preview before printing" in printer preferences to avoid surprises.

Wahawk Loc: NE IA

You have figured out the only way to do it, HOWEVER it is NOT fool-proof!!!

There are some printers that will take your file that is CROPPED to the correct proportions and STILL seem to lose some of it!!! Granted this will generally be a minor amount, but they still can't get it completely correct.

You could also find a place that will print with NO CROP and let them know that white space is OK!!! Then choose the print size that your chosen size will fit into. At one time places like Walmart, Walgreens, etc had an option that allowed this selection, but lately with the newer equipment and programs I have been unable to find that selection anymore.

Wahawk Loc: NE IA

You have figured out the only way to do it, HOWEVER it is NOT fool-proof!!!

There are some printers that will take your file that is CROPPED to the correct proportions and STILL seem to lose some of it!!! Granted this will generally be a minor amount, but they still can't get it completely correct.

You could also find a place that will print with NO CROP and let them know that white space is OK!!! Then choose the print size that your chosen size will fit into. At one time places like Walmart, Walgreens, etc had an option that allowed this selection, but lately with the newer equipment and programs I have been unable to find that selection anymore.

Wahawk Loc: NE IA

Leitz wrote:

Select "Preview before printing" in printer preferences to avoid surprises.

If you are doing your own printing, this will usually give you the option of choosing the paper size and then to "UNcheck" or "DEselect" the option that says something like "fit picture to frame" or something similar. This will then print the FULL image on the paper leaving white spaces where necessary to eliminate the cropping.

Leitz Loc: Solms

Wahawk wrote:

If you are doing your own printing, this will usually give you the option of choosing the paper size and then to "UNcheck" or "DEselect" the option that says something like "fit picture to frame" or something similar. This will then print the FULL image on the paper leaving white spaces where necessary to eliminate the cropping.

My intent was to point out that when you see exactly what will be printed, before it is printed, you will have no surprises when it is printed.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

We just need to get over the "standard" format ratios. Which for the most part are either from various sheet film cameras or multiples of the sheet film sizes. When 35 and 120 etc became common they just never changed the paper sizes and have just started doing so in the last few years since digital came along with all of its sensor sizes and format ratios.

8.5 x 11 photo paper for printers has one very simple ancestry, it is standard US letter paper, something most printers were set up to use. You don't have a camera that does 4.25 x 5.5 ratio, too bad, live with it our cutting machines can do both letter paper and photo printing paper with no changes. In fact, we can use the same machine to cut both.

djtravels Loc: Georgia boy now

This resize/crop problem is why I leave a little wiggle room when composing. Helps many times.

BobHartung Loc: Bettendorf, IA

gvarner wrote:

There's lots of questions about going from 4x6 to 5x7 for example, how to do this without losing some of the original pic. What with computers and pixel juggling it seems that you could just resize from one to the other and voila, it's done. Doesn't work that way. I've tried and tried and always lose something in the transition......

Your post suggests that you are cropping to 4x6 and throwing away the unused pixels for that size. Hopefully you have the original full size digital negative, either jpeg or RAW, and can then simply recrop for 5x7 and not have to manufacture pixels for this size.

abc1234 Loc: Elk Grove Village, Illinois

This is a frequent topic here. People have missed another approach: stretch or shrink one dimension. While not what purists would do or like, most viewers will not detect the minor distortion.

Chuck_893 Loc: Lincoln, Nebraska, USA

gvarner wrote:

There's lots of questions about going from 4x6 to ... (show quote)

One way I have done it is to add basically a mat. I use Photoshop Elements (I don't know how it would work with another program). Elements allows one to "add canvas," blank space around the original picture. The "canvas" can be any size and ratio. It can be colored and/or textured. The original photo sits in the center (or can be off-centered). If you get really creative you can create a background layer behind the original, so the original can have a drop shadow to make it look like it's floating on the background. This way you can take a 4:5 ratio print and float it on a 5:7 ratio "mat." I had to do this when I was making prints fit album pages that were the wrong ratio. I've even taken the original file, upsized it and "ghosted" it onto the background layer so that the photo floats on a ghosted, maybe blurred larger version of itself.

revhen Loc: By the beautiful Hudson

gvarner wrote:

There's lots of questions about going from 4x6 to ... (show quote)

I recently converted 4x6 (2/3 ratio) photos to 5x7 using the FastStone photo resizer program. It's free I believe. You just have to Google the name and download. The difference in ratio is .667 for the 4x6 and .714 for the 5x7 so the distortion is very slight.

Mark7829 Loc: Calfornia

gvarner wrote:

There's lots of questions about going from 4x6 to ... (show quote)

I never crop my images to a standard or any size. It really never works. I print to media and let printer compact or expand to whatever media/paper size I have. It is always correct when I do that. So many crop to 8 1/2 x 11 and you are right, there will be distortion in print. Not only will you have a distorted imaged by you would have altered and destroyed the original. Or as some do, save their images in various sizes that only clutters the hard drive with duplicates. But if you print to media, there will not be any distortion of loss. Don't resize in PS or LR. let the printer do that for you. Print to media is best in opinion and if you have any excess whited edges, cut it off or not.

OddJobber Loc: Portland, OR

abc1234 wrote:

People have missed another approach: stretch or shrink one dimension. While not what purists would do or like, most viewers will not detect the minor distortion.

Maybe for landscape or other unrecognizable objects but I don't think this lady would like the "minor distortion". :XD: