BetterPhoto Q&A
Category: Printing Digital Pictures

BetterPhoto Member

How to Resize a Digital Photo for Lab Printing

We are so very brand new at this! We've just bought a Canon S30, and are snapping away like maniacs. When we submit the shots we want printed to our local photo shop, our dog's ears and/or tail are cut off on a 4x6 print when they seem to be all there when viewed on the computer! We have Zoom Browser, which came with the camera, and also Adobe Photo Deluxe.

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February 27, 2003

Jon Close

The Canon S30 creates images in 1:1.333 aspect ratio (example 1600 pixels wide x 1200 pixels tall). The width is 1.333 times the height. A 4x6 inch print is 1:1.5 aspect ratio. To fill a 4x6 inch print, your image has to be enlarged to 4.5x6 inches, and then the extra 0.5 inch of height is cropped off.

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February 28, 2003

Jon Close

P.S.
The 1:1.3333 aspect ratio was chosen as it is a perfect match to most computer monitors. The thinking was to match the digital camera's images to its most likely use: Web pages and emailed photos. Unfortunately, it is not a commonly used print size.

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February 28, 2003

Jon Close

P.S.S. ;-)
To get a "full frame" print you need to request that the printer not fill the long side. Have them enlarge to 4x5.3333 and leave the extra 2/3 inch of the print blank.

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February 28, 2003

John A. Lind

Jon has described your problem well. Here are a couple more ideas. Don't know how much resolution your images have. If they can withstand enlargement to 5x7, try that size. If not, then try asking for 4x5 or 3-1/2 x 5 prints. All three of these standard print sizes are closer to the 3:4 aspect ratio of your camera than a 4x6 is. If you're using a consumer lab, they may not be able to do 4x5's, but it's worth asking. It's one of the two sizes pro labs use for medium format proofs (the other is a 5x5 square).

BTW, the 4x6 print size was created because it exactly matches the 2:3 aspect ratio of 35mm film, but it doesn't match much of anything else very well.

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February 28, 2003

George E. Givens Jr

Now to throw a monkey wrench in the mix. Most smaller frames you'll find at typical department stores and consumer labs conform to the 3:2 (2:3 or 1:1.5) aspect ratio (actually this should be called resolution ratio). Then there's your 8x10 which 1:1.25. The botton line is send your film or digital prints to a pro lab that can print any size print you want. It is all too confusing. I always shoot at 3:2 when shooting digitally because I always send my digital prints to a pro lab. If you have a Cord Camera in your area they offer any size print you want.

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March 05, 2003

Cheryl Meisel

I still don't understand this. I have tried everything. My camera's image size is 2560 x 1920. Now Ofoto will not crop any image that has a 1:1.25 aspect ratio, which this does not. This is for a borderless print in 8x10. I want to save as much of the photo as possible, but I can't figure out what the pixels would be to give this ratio. To make matters worse I found this on the net, and it seemed COOL but that's not going to work either as far as my figures do this to that aspect ratio.
Surely there is some way to do this rather then to cut off half your photo for a borderless print! Please check this out below and any help would be wonderful as I am so tired of trying this.
http://home.cinci.rr.com/creek/frontier_resize.htm

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October 14, 2003

John A. Lind

Cheryl,

For maximum content on the 8x10 print (borderless), the long edge must be cropped from 2560 to 2400 pixels. Divide 1920 by four and then multiply the result by five. The print is an 8:10 aspect ratio (same as 4:5 and 1:1.125). This doesn't lose "half" the photo, only about 8% (about 1/12th).

I deal with this all the time when working with film, both 35mm small format and 645 medium format. Typically a slight amount of room along the long edge must be left in composing the photograph for the cropping necessary to get it onto a print. The one exception is from 645 to a 5x7 print that requires taking a very slight amount off of the short edge. BTW, 645 medium format is the same as most digitals, including yours, with a 3:4 aspect ratio, and cropping for standard print sizes bigger than the anomolous 4x6 (created solely for 35mm) isn't much.

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October 19, 2003

Cheryl Meisel

Yes John thank you and I did know it was 2400 pixels I did the math 1000 times lol. I also know I was making it much bigger when I said half lol. But it is a good part of the photo and I just thought maybe there was another way but I guess not. Ahhhhhh well I guess I will SHOOT for that or try to in the future lol. Thanks!

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October 19, 2003

Sue Cuevas

I too was frustrated with this problem. I am not good on all the math - ha ha. I have a Sony DSC-S85 4 megapixel. I use Walmart's photo lab and have been very happy with my prints. But I hate losing part of the picture in the crop! The only conclusion I came to was to make sure I was not zooming in too much when taking the picture as to not lose the top of a head or whatever. Also, If it is a really great shot that I do not want cropped off, I create a black panel from my digital software program (print shop or Adobe) behind the digital print which prints as a black border (you could use any color or design) and this way I print the full shot without losing any of the image you see on screen. The black border is somewhat shorter on one of the long edge but my whole picture is in tact. (As you can see I am very new and green so I have to be creative). My question is, if I by a digital SLR would I still lose some of my print when printing at a photo lab? I want an affordable digital SLR that does not have as much lag time too. Any suggestions anyone?

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October 21, 2003

Jill M. Turnbull

What I do to overcome this problem is alter the canvas size to 4" x 6" (Using PhotoShop). This maintains the 4" x 5.33" image size and inserts a top and bottom border(approx .6)to alter the print size to 4" x 6". The borders can be cut off later.

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October 22, 2003

Cheryl Meisel

Yes Jill this was what I was referring to. I had heard others doing this. hummmmmm this sounds good to me, I will have to try it. Thanks Cheryl

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October 22, 2003

Cheryl Meisel

You might look into the Canon 300d Sue!

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October 22, 2003

Sue Cuevas

Jill - I thought I tried this in Photoshop Elements and still had the same problem. But I will try again. (I certainly could have done something wrong!)

And Cheryl...thanks for the recommendation...I will look into this model. With an SLR is there still the problem with the cropping or do these cameras help preserve the whole image whe printed at a photo lab?

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October 22, 2003

Cheryl Meisel

LOL Sue from what I hear it still is the same ball park there but you do have a larger pic to work with. 6mp so that might help! Cheryl