Cropping & Sizing

"This is not the way I wanted it cropped, it makes no sense, don't you Look at the image before you print it?!"

Note: If you use StudioLabLink you don't have to worry about this.

Those of us who remember the days of film, also remember the way in which we obsessed about our negatives. Carefully sleeved and protected. When we took the negs to the lab, if the size of the final print did not correspond exactly to the print size we expected we used a sharpie to carefully indicate the crop, on the sleeve. That prevented errors due to differences of opinion as to what the crop should be, it left no room for operator interpretation, no excuses for bad crops.

Since the digital evolution of photography began many shooters have been seduced by the simplicity of the dark side. Yeah! no film, no lab processing of the film, just shoot and turn the files over to the lab, indicate sizes and quantities and we're good to go!

There are those of you out there that are now saying, yeah, and the problem with that is? Then there are those who were obsessive before and see no reason to change, they are saying, what a ridiculous assumption, it is even more important to be in control.

I am sorry to disappoint the disciples of simplicity but current professional opinion still favors the obsessives. If you have specific parameters for your output (prints), then must provide the lab with as much specific information as possible.

Following are some basic guidelines that will increase accuracy of your orders, speed up the expected turn around time, create less headaches on your end and generally make us love you, our loyal customers, even more than we do now.

  1. Use a properly Calibrated Monitor
  2. If you send in an order, separate the files that you are actually printing and burn them to a separate order specific CD. (If you have a CD with 100 images, but are only ordering prints from 5 or 6, or (20 for that matter) Place all of them on a separate CD.
    We have few errors in printing the 'wrong file but it can and does happen. Considering that it takes just a few minutes to separate and burn the appropriate files as opposed to 2 days once we are notified of the need to reprint the order, the economics of time involvement should be self-evident.
  3. Separate Black & White images from the color images.
  4. Recrop and resize images before they get to the lab. You know what you are expecting to see. Take a few minutes to do this so that there is no question. A file shot in a DSLR, (think, 35mm 'size' camera body) captures an image in an aspect ratio that most nearly resembles a 4 x 6 image when printed.

A full frame, 4 x 6 aspect ratio will look like this:

4x6 before cropping

In a 5 x 7 aspect ratio, the same file will look like this:
(notice that the image was clipped on the right hand side)

cropped as a 5x7

In an 8 x 10 aspect ratio, the image will look like this:
(notice further clipping off the side of the image)

cropped as a 8x10

On some images where composition is not as critical, the aspect ratio might not make as big a difference. But as you can see from the examples above, if the crop was not indicated and the file resized prior to submission to the lab, the operator would make a best guess at what the photographer wanted. In composition critical images like portraits or images where significant detail is filling the frame, we would rather leave the cropping descisions to you.

Finally, if you have a specific expectation for your output, give us as much information as possible. The digital age has not necessarily made things simpler or quicker. There are definite differences in the way things are accomplished but an efficient, accurate and profitable workflow is still the responsibility of the photographer.