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Printing Digital Photo problems

  • 16-02-2006 12:15pm
    #1
    englander
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 205 ✭✭


    Probably been discussed before but cant find anything in regards to my simple problem.

    Whenever I get photos printed from my digital camera the full photo is never printed.

    When I view on screen I can see all the photo but when I either print from PC or take into shop for printing the top/bottom gets lopped off.

    The digital picture is squarer than the photo paper (at home or from photo lab)

    If I want the whole picture printed at home I always end up with a big white border on left and rigththand sides.

    I'm assuming the width x height ratio of photos produced by my camera are different to the ones used by paper companies ?

    Can I buy photo paper that will be more appropriate for my digital pictures ?
    or
    Can I get photo lab to print on more appropriate size than the 6x4 or 15x10cm.


Comments

  • #2
    jlang
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,496 ✭✭✭jlang


    You've pretty much answered your own question. Short answer - yes, you can do whatever you want.

    The standard photo lab prints are 6x4 (inches) which matches the 3:2 ratio of 35mm film and more expensive digital SLR cameras. Most other digital cameras take pictures in a 4:3 ratio (matching computer monitors, some TV screens, etc) which is, as you've noticed, a bit bigger on the narrow side.

    To print on the standard size paper, you have to either crop off the top and/or bottom or have the white bars on the ends and trim them yourself. If you don't specify what you want, the shop will assume that you don't want the white bars and will crop your pics probably equally on top and bottom, unless the technician cares and is paying attention to what is going through the machine. The online sites usually let you specify what you want per picture, or you could crop the files on your computer before uploading.

    Some labs (shops and online) can print pictures in 4:3 ratio - look for 15x11cm or 6x4.5in instead of 15x10/6x4. It's an extra cent per print to get these at foto.com, for example. Your problem then becomes that albums, etc are generally made for 6x4. For larger prints a variety of different ratios are used.

    Home printers use standard sizes of paper - eg A4, so usually need trimming depending on how you've set up the print.

    If you know you are going to print on 6x4's you can be aware of this when composing the picture and don't use the whole frame. Or on the computer at home, you can crop to the right shape to ensure that the right stuff gets left in and only pass on the 3:2 ratio file to the lab so you know they won't cut off your feet or head or whichever you wanted to keep. Or get the prints in a 4:3 format, as above.

    There's also the issue that to get to the edges of the sheet, the picture is printed slightly larger than the final print and trimmed down to exactly 6x4 or whatever so you lose a pixel or two all round as well, but that's probably not noticeable.


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