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Questions for People Who Get 4x6 Prints Commercially -- a littlelong
jim evans wrote:
I'm trying to help a friend learn photo editing. She has her photos printed commercially. I don't have any experience with this and a couple of issues/questions have come up that have made me wonder. Number 1: A full frame digital image length to width ratio is 1.3. 4x6 print ratio is 1.5. This means that people who just walk up, stick their memory card in the machine and ask for prints have the top or bottom of their images chopped off. The Fuji Kiosks will automatically crop evenly as needed to make the image fit the selected paper size. Depending how the software has been setup by the store, they can give the option of letting the customer adjust the cropping rectangle, or give the customer the choice of "print to fit", where it will print the entire image, leaving white edges as necessary. Do most people realize this or do they think it was just the way they took the picture? My friend had been doing this, and until she began seeing the entire frame on the screen she didn't realize her pictures were being cropped. IME most people don't realise this. The lab I used to work in (and occasionally still fill in), had clear signs up next to each terminal demonstrating the effect, and explaining what to do about it (manual cropping or print-to-fit). We also configured the machines to display a warning screen as the user started that cropping was possible. Despite these efforts, it was almost a daily occurrence that we'd get someone who wouldn't want to pay for prints because of automatic cropping issues. In film days this was never an issue, as people couldn't remember exactly how they had framed the image, most viewfinders had allowance anyway, and the most common print size matched the aspect ratio of the most common film. (But even when we had 5x7 promotions etc, there wasn't an issue). Enter digital, and they see the entire image on the camera, then wonder why the entire image doesn't print on the paper. Number 2: If you give the service an image that is sized to 4x6 exactly, they enlarge the image slightly. Then the part larger than the 4x6 paper is chopped off all around the edges. I assume they do this to deal with the small error/tollerances in the paper handling of their machines. That is, a little forgiveness for misalignment so there won't be small white streaks on one edge or the other. That is correct. Are most people aware of this? No, but it is rarely an issue, as this is much smaller than the amount a 4:3 image is cropped. If so, what's the most common method used to compensate for it? Prints with white borders - the image will then be completely printed. Or, do most people not care that they lose the edge of their photos? I first noticed it when a picture of a crowd had the people's feet (which were near the bottom) chopped off. usually the amount cropped is much smaller than that - the feet must have been right at the bottom, and fairly small. jim |
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Questions for People Who Get 4x6 Prints Commercially -- a littlelong
jim evans wrote:
On Sat, 11 Feb 2006 22:07:56 +1000, Graham Fountain wrote: I first noticed it when a picture of a crowd had the people's feet (which were near the bottom) chopped off. usually the amount cropped is much smaller than that - the feet must have been right at the bottom, and fairly small. Yes the feet were small -- it was a picture of a crowd. Thanks for your reply. It was very helpful. Do you happen to know how much larger than the print size they enlarge the image? It looks like about 2mm or .08 inches on a 4x6. In the Fuji Frontiers you can adjust the amount of overprint. Normally it is about 2mm for 6x4, lifting to about 5mm on an 8x10. If you set it to 0 you'll see just how inaccurate the paper registration can be - it needs pretty much all of those 2mm to ensure the paper is all covered. Personally I prefer to choose bordered prints - that way there is no cropping, and I like the look of a thin white border around my prints. jim |
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