Resizing digital shots

[rubric]

I know there have been some posts on resizing of photos, but I'm confused. Let's say my picture is 1600x1200 pixels (ratio of 4:3). Do I need to resize it to 3:2 to send for printing? Won't there be distortion as I can't use 'constrain proportions' in PS? Thx.

 

[ekardo]

yes...for 4R, you have to use 3:2 proportion...

well...see, from 4:3 to 3:2, how to constrain proportion when it's not the same ratio ??

there will be some lost of head or leg..inevitable, anyway, now you know you have to give some space for allowance...

 

[Midnight]

You will need to crop away (i.e. leave out) the parts of the photo you don't want in order to make it fit the 3:2 (or whatever) aspect ratio. So if you have a 1600x1200 image, you will generally need to eliminate some pixels along the shorter axis to make it a 1600x1067 image. The same goes for other aspect ratios, eg. 8R's 4:5 ratio. Don't just resize in Photoshop with "constrain proportions" off, because it will definitely distort the picture, as you mentioned, unless you like that kind of effect.

Alternatively, you can just send the full image in to the shop and specify whether you want it printed as a cropped image or in its entirety. In the former case, the lab will then do the cropping based on their own judgment (may not always be to your liking, though), while in the latter case, the lab will print the whole 4:3 picture but leave white unprinted borders in the 'excess' space, which you can then cut off yourself later on.

 

[rubric]

Midnight, so do I use Canvas size and change 1200 to 1067? How do I resize the picture with more control over what to crop? Thx.

 

[Belle&Sebastain]

well, if you copy your orginal pic (the background cannot be moved), and change canvas size to 3:2 ration, you could move the pic around on where to crop before you flatten it and send for printing.

 

[Midnight]

Originally posted by rubric
Midnight, so do I use Canvas size and change 1200 to 1067? How do I resize the picture with more control over what to crop? Thx.

There are several ways to accomplish this, but I find this to be the easiest (instructions are for Adobe Photoshop):

1. Click the 'Select' tool in the Tools palette (first tool in top-left corner).
2. In the tool options palette, change the "Style" to "Fixed Size"
3. On the same palette, enter the height and width you want, eg. height=1600px and width=1067px, or vice versa.
4. Click anywhere within your image. You will see a selection box of exactly the size you specified.
5. Drag the selection box until the area is what you want to retain in your photo.
6. On the menu bar, select Image -> Crop.
   [/list=1]Feel free to msg me if you need more details about any of these steps.

 

[rubric]

Thx Midnight! That was great. Saved me alot of sweat and tears. ;p

 

[Eric]

Cropping to the desired size is good when you have space to crop away and you are not dealing with too many pictures.

If you have many photos and don't want to spend time processing each photo, most photo labs that know what they are doing will have an option to either crop the photo to fill a 4R, or fit-in the image, leaving white borders on the sides.

 

[ziploc]

You can bring them to a Fuji Epic shop, and tell them you want to print them in 4dsc (instead of 4R). They will be printed in 4:3 ratio (and hence slightly shorter then 4R). No cropping is needed.