Printing your Photographs

Printing you photographs! 

 Have you ever wondered why your photographs get cut off or cropped when printing at a lab, or that your digital photographs don’t fit the paper properly? We will explain why this happens and how to deal with it when printing from digital photographs you may have received.

 Most professional photographers use a camera with a 35 millimeter sensor or full frame professional camera. These sensors create digital photographs that are 3:2 ratio in length to width of the photograph. So let’s look at the photographs above. The first image on the left is an 8”x10” print from a 3:2 ratio camera sensor (35mm). You will notice that the image has been cropped or the image has been cut off where the watermark is in the lower left hand corner of the print. This print was taken in landscape orientation and printed 8” tall x 10” long.

Why did this happen? It works like this. Take the 3 portion of the 3:2 ration and do the math: 8 divided by 3 = 2.66. Take the 2 portion of the 3:2 ration and the math is: 10 divided by 2 = 5. Unless you skew or stretch the image something will be cropped off because 8/3 does not divide evenly. So as we see in the photograph on the left the length got cut off.

 Let’s use another example and take a look at the photograph on the right. This image was taken in landscape orientation, 3:2 ratio, and printed on 4”x6” paper. This image has not been cropped, or parts of the image cut off, and has not been stretched, or skewed to fit, and it printed correctly. Why? Because 6/3=2 and 4/2=2. Both dimensions can be divided evenly, hence the image will fit and print properly. 8”x10” is generally known as a popular size, but we always recommend using 8”x12” instead and you will not have any cropping. I think the 8”X10” originated in Europe, but don’t quote me on that.

 So what does this all mean for the person who is printing their digital photographs that they have received from a photographer using a 3:2 camera sensor? It means you will have to be diligent in choosing your paper print sizes, while considering the following; Does the photograph contain specific details around the edges that need to be retained or can it be cropped, is the image taken in portrait or landscape orientation, will you be using a border, what type of frame will you be using, etc. Consider these items before purchasing your prints. If you do not want any crop, for example a photograph that has a group of people that is edge to edge of the photograph, then be sure you choose a print size that divides evenly, otherwise you will have cropping and someone’s arm may get cut off in the photograph. The information above only pertains to a 3:2 ratio camera sensor and is generally the preferred sensor size for professional photographers. We hope this information helps you when printing you photographs in the future!

Brian Ellis