Posted: 7/14/2009 4:49:07 AM EDT
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Question for you photo guru's. I took a group photo of my son's swim team. I went to CVS and had them enlarged to 5x7 and 8x10. The 5x7 looks ok but the 8x10 has a 1/2" white bar at the top and bottom. The guy at CVS said it is because the picture format is 4x6 and when enlarged equals 8x12?
What can I do to make it look right? Croping it cuts the people from the left and right side. I can e-mail you the pics if you need to work on them. I prefer not to post them on the internets. |
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what you're running into is what is called "aspect ratio"... there are common aspect ratios such as 2:3 (so a 4"x6" photo has the same proportions as an 8"x12" photo)... when you try to print a 2:3 photo in 8x10 format (which is a 4:5 aspect ratio) you run into the problem you're having = either you have white bars on the long edge, or you crop off the short edges. there is no real way around this problem other than to "plan ahead" and take a wider shot and leave yourself some "dead space" around your subject matter in order to allow cropping later on.
there are other photo labs more equipped than a CVS that can actually print you an 8x12. check your local phone book. also, try a place that does large format prints and duplications like a print shop. i hope that helps. if anything is unclear, don't hesitate to ask. |
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Quoted:
what you're running into is what is called "aspect ratio"... there are common aspect ratios such as 2:3 (so a 4"x6" photo has the same proportions as an 8"x12" photo)... when you try to print a 2:3 photo in 8x10 format (which is a 4:5 aspect ratio) you run into the problem you're having = either you have white bars on the long edge, or you crop off the short edges. there is no real way around this problem other than to "plan ahead" and take a wider shot and leave yourself some "dead space" around your subject matter in order to allow cropping later on. there are other photo labs more equipped than a CVS that can actually print you an 8x12. check your local phone book. also, try a place that does large format prints and duplications like a print shop. i hope that helps. if anything is unclear, don't hesitate to ask. Thanks, I picked CVS because they are giving us a 20% discount. I guess I should have planned ahead and allowed for dead space. |
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Quoted:
Quoted:
what you're running into is what is called "aspect ratio"... there are common aspect ratios such as 2:3 (so a 4"x6" photo has the same proportions as an 8"x12" photo)... when you try to print a 2:3 photo in 8x10 format (which is a 4:5 aspect ratio) you run into the problem you're having = either you have white bars on the long edge, or you crop off the short edges. there is no real way around this problem other than to "plan ahead" and take a wider shot and leave yourself some "dead space" around your subject matter in order to allow cropping later on. there are other photo labs more equipped than a CVS that can actually print you an 8x12. check your local phone book. also, try a place that does large format prints and duplications like a print shop. i hope that helps. if anything is unclear, don't hesitate to ask. Thanks, I picked CVS because they are giving us a 20% discount. I guess I should have planned ahead and allowed for dead space. don't worry about it too much. i find myself getting too tight at time... and then at others i am two wide and then then i crop to my subject i don't have enough picture left to make a quality print 
most other photo labs offer discounts and/or frequent flyer discounts. i know the lab i go to has a repeat customer program which amounts to 10% off and sometimes free doubles. may not hurt to shop around and ask if they have any programs available. and sometime the better quality of a true photo lab is worth a little bit more in cost. |
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good info: Aspect RatioMost point and shoot cameras have a 4:3 aspect ratio. That is, the ratio of width to height is 4:3 because that was the typical computer and TV aspect ratio when such things were first thought up. It is not a measure of the physical dimensions of the image (ie not 4 inches by 3 inches), but of the height divided into the width, or vice-versa. Unfortunately, it is unusual to print a photo with a 4:3 aspect ratio, as 6x4, 7x5, 10x8, etc . are much more common. Even if you using a Digital SLR which typically creates 6x4 aspect ratio images, you still have a problem when printing 5x7, etc. So what do so? There are three basic choices: 1. Don’t worry about it and take whatever comes out of the printer. Not to be recommended as you are giving too much leeway to a machine that can’t make value judgments about what looks good. 2. Stretch the image to change the aspect ratio. Also not, normally, to be recommended, especially when people are involved (unless, like in the house of mirrors, you’d like to make yourself look thinner, or equally, to add a few pounds to Uncle Bob). See example below. 3. Crop the image. That is, remove some unneeded parts such that the resulting aspect ratio matches the print size you want. This is my typical path and is easy to do in most image editing applications. Aside: while it is good practice to fill the frame with subject matter when taking photos, if you are going to print pictures in aspect ratios different to what your camera creates it is always best to leave a little buffer around the sides of the frame for such cropping. |
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Looks like everything's been covered for future photos so far.
But if you have the time, skills and program(s), you can edit the photo in question and try to add in some extra picture to the white bar(s). Typically, on a team photo, you'll be shooting landscape (wider than it is tall), and thus will have white area at the top and/or bottom. You can use photoshop to clone, liquify, or otherwise "fill in" enough data to give you an 8x10" canvas without cropping. If you aren't at least somewhat familiar with photoshop, it's not something I'd recommend... but if you have used it before and want to undergo a "learning experience", it can usually be done... especially if the top/bottom is just sky and grass. If you're not up for doing it yourself, send me a PM with a link to the original (full sized) photo, and I'll see what I can come up with for you. |