Cropping – A Starter’s Guide
Digital cameras are great but many don’t have very impressive optical zoom capabilities. As a result, our subject can be relatively small in the print area. Time to crop out all of that extra stuff and fill the frame with our subject. Just beware that you are deleting pixels, never to see them again and this can have a serious effect on your ability to print a decent looking image.
Our general rule of thumb here at the lab is to have at least 1200×1800 pixels for a 4×6. There’s some wiggle room here to have fewer pixels and get a good print, but try not to overdo it. And a word of caution – everything looks good on your screen, you can’t always predict what the print will look like from your computer screen.
Original image - 2560x1712 pixels
Here’s my other nephew, playing with some toy trucks. The original pixel dimensions are 2560×1712.
cropped to 948x1422 pixels
Next, I’ve cropped it to be a 4×6 vertical, taking out the tow trucks entirely. The pixel dimensions are now 948×1422. It’s smaller than our recommended size and there is a difference in the picture quality but in this case, most customers will probably be happy with the results.
Original image - 1280x1920 pixels
Cropped to 471x676 pixels
In the second example, I’ve taken an image that was 1280×1920 (that’s just over our recommended dimension) and cropped to the horse and rider in the lower left corner. Now the image is just 451×676 and its printed quality is noticeably reduced. You can tell the focus isn’t perfectly sharp and edges that should be smooth are now more jagged. On the screen, these imperfections may not look too bad, but the print will look “digital” (and not in a good way). I wouldn’t recommend cropping this much to make a 4×6 print. You’d be better off getting closer to your subject before taking the picture.
How do you tell what your pixel dimensions are? On a Windows PC, change your folder view to “Details.”
Change View to "Details"
If the dimensions aren’t listed, right-click along the top where it says “Name,” “Type,” etc. and scroll down to “More…” if necessary to find “Dimensions.”
If Dimensions are not visible, right-click on title bar and scroll down to More...
Click on "Dimensions" to add them to your Detail View
Using Picasa to crop your photos is quick and easy, but impossible to monitor what your pixel dimensions will be until you’re done. You can check the pixel dimensions towards the bottom of the screen after you’ve cropped the image.
Cropping in Picasa
After you crop, the dimensions show up below the image - 950x1424
Adobe’s Photoshop Elements makes it possible to put in the pixel dimensions you want but if you’re cropping out large portions of your image, the computer will make its own adjustments, and sometimes not for the better. Here, Elements has changed the resolution to less than half of what our printer requires.
Cropping in Photoshop Elements - Choose your width & height
The resolution is half what we need to make a decent 4x6 print
Here’s what to remember: the more pixels you start off with, the more you can afford to crop. For a 4×6 print, try to keep those dimensions to 1200×1800 or higher.
Happy Shooting!
February 6th, 2009 at 12:55 pm
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