qualtalk

We're starting to move from exhibiting online to actually printing some of our images.

Any tips or “ninja tricks” on how to compose images to allow for different output sizes? For example, shots that look fantastic in the camera with a 3:2 aspect ratio have a completely different "feel" when you have to crop them down to fit on an 8 x 10 print.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Well, if you crop in camera to get an 8x10, it will probably look line what your 3:2 shot cropped to an 8x10.

I print 8x12s if I want full frame. 11x14 mats are available with an 8x12 window.
If it's going in an 8x10 frame, you'll either have to crop the long side or stretch the short side.
I shoot full frame view and adjust if needed because I print 5x7 also.

Just compose not using about 15-18% of the long side?

I have some info at https://mymindseye.us/AspectRatio.phtml

pmorin Loc: Huntington Beach, Palm Springs

My Canon has several aspect ratio settings in the menu. If your camera, whichever make you have, does this too then that may help you in composing.

jdubu Loc: San Jose, CA

I almost always compose toward the center and allow that cropping of any edge will not affect what I want included in the photo. I try not to compose to the edge of the frame while shooting.
This is especially true for paid shooting when no one knows what the final sizing will be, or as happened, they want a different sizing or orientation of the same shot.

Even with that thought in mind when I shoot, there are times it isn't possible to fulfill a certain crop effectively. That's when I have used PSCC for fills or borders to meet the cropping. Otherwise, it's custom framing and sizing to the rescue.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Yes, even for macro and panoramas I always leave space around my subject for cropping.

Also I have begun to get away from the "standard" crop ratios - some images/subjects just call for something else. I can print them on 13x19 (biggest my pro-100 will do without some fancy trickery-with the right settings and feeding one sheet at a time from the back the Pro-100 will go to 13x26) and trim the excess before mounting.

A local library has photo contests yearly. A friend recommended I enter one year.
They required all prints to be 11x14 centered on a matt board cut to make a certain margin around the image. I told them I had images that were not suitable for 11x14. They repeated the 11x14 requirement. I handed the application back and said good bye.

Later I heard that one of the main people who helped start the contests years before was a fanatic for 11x14 format and always mounted his images that way. He convinced the non-photographers on the library board it was the only way to do things and they were just stuck on it ever since.
Maybe I will check to see if they have managed to get unstuck in the 4 years since then. The guy is dead and gone now.

selmslie Loc: Fernandina Beach, FL, USA

Both the 3:2 and the 1:1 formats make it impossible to use standard frames. But they are easy to find for 8x10, 11x14 and 16x20.

This isn't much of a challenge if you are shooting 4x5 inch or 6x7 cm film or even micro 4/3 but it's a bit tricky for a 3:2 aspect ratio for full frame or APS-C.

If your camera does not provide you a way to see a 5:4 aspect ratio then it's just something you need to learn to compose for when using a conventional full frame or crop sensor camera.

qualtalk

Where do you get 8x12 paper?

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

1. roll paper and cut it
2. 11.14 or 13x19 and trim it.

Some retailers sell it pre-cut, most I looked at seem to be using Mitsubishi paper rolls to cut it.

Red River has 9x13 which would give you 1/2" margin all the way around.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Fifty sheet box (no cutting):
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/756056-REG/Inkpress_PCL81250_RC_Luster_Paper_for.html
(Luster side may not be easily recognized. )
On my second box. I like the InkPress paper.

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

3:2 is a FULL OUT aspect ratio that I use. In other words, I print this aspect ration to 4X6, 8X12, 12X18, 16X24, and 20X30. I shoot this aspect ratio because I can compose exactly what I want to see in my enlargements with I use this ratio.
If you want an 8X10 print then change your aspect ratio to 5:4.

yssirk123 Loc: New Jersey

My suggestion would be print on larger paper and then cut to size. When you print borderless, you always get some overspray on the inside of the printer (despite ink channels), and over time it becomes a gummy mess.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

If you have a dSLR, and its viewfinder screen is removable (or not, in many instances), then click this:

https://www.viewfindermasks.com/

When I worked for a school portrait lab, those folks made the masks we put in our photographers’ cameras.

Many modern digital cameras give you the options of composing 1:1, 3:2, 4:3, and 16:9 aspect ratios.

Personally, I use my full 4:3 sensor, compose a tad loosely, and crop in Lightroom.

It is possible to design and print your own mask for the rear screen of your camera, using overhead transparency film and a laser printer.

selmslie Loc: Fernandina Beach, FL, USA

I have not found a digital camera that offers that aspect ratio. All I have seen is 3:2, 4:3, 16:9 and square.

It's probably easier to visualize 5:4 if you start with a square in-camera JPEG the and then get the extra width (or height) from the raw file.

The raw file still records the full frame image whether it's 3:2 or 4:3.

rond-photography Loc: Connecticut

Some cameras allow you to choose a different aspect ratio when shooting and show an outline over the area representing the aspect. Shooting in raw, you will still get the full frame, but you will know where the scene you are envisioning is going to be when you crop to 8X10 or whatever. On a DSLR, you would probably have to shoot live view, but maybe they have a way to project the lines into the viewfinder, too?

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

The easiest way to do that is to allow room around the image you'll want to print. Don't fill the frame with exactly the final image you expect to print.