# How to resize pictures so that they dont get cropped when printed??



## photographybyheather

I am new to photography but know a little bit. I have been taking practice portrait pictures for people and then emailing them to them so they can print them themselves in whatever size they want. In photoshop I resize it to a 4 by 6, but when they had it printed at walgreens it got cropped alot. When I asked walgreens about it they said it was the size of the picture, that their machines just automatically crop it. Is that true? and how do I avoid that. I want to be able to just save the pictures, send them to the client and they can use it to print whatever size they want....but I dont want it cropped.


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## yv0nne

Umm ..unless they printed the photo as a 4x6 or 8x12 or some multiple of 4x6, then you'll have a crop.
You would have to find out what size they wanted to order every photo in, crop them to that sized& then send them. It makes more sense to send them the full file& have them use the little cropping tool that comes on most websites (don't have Walgreens where I live so nut sure about them but I would imagine they do as well). It should let you decide which parts of the photo you want cropped.


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## MLeeK

The problem is that almost all prints are a totally different ratio. You have the 4x6 which turns into 8x12, 12x18 and so on... Then there is the 5x7 which turns into 10x14, etc. The 4x5 which is 8x10... There are so many you cannot crop to a standard for EVERY possible print. If you are sizing for a client the best ratio you can use is the 11x14. It will lend itself pretty decently to any other crop after the fact. 
When you are shooting you need to remember to always leave room to lose 2 inches on that long size-that works out to an 8x10 which is the worst for chopping off part of your image.


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## KmH

photographybyheather said:


> *How to resize pictures so that they dont get cropped when printed??*


Re-sizing is the wrong way to do it. Cropping is the only option, unless you add borders to the image to fill the extra space required to avoid cropping. (Example below)
This is one of the reasons giving clients images on a disk can backfire and make the client think the photographer made some kind of a mistake. If you don't understand it, no doubt the client isn't likely to.

The issue is about *aspect ratio.*

Most DSLR digital cameras have an image sensor that has the same aspect ratio as a frame of 35 mm film (full frame, APS-H, and APS-C). The long side of the frame is 3 units long, while the sort side is 2 units long, an *aspect ratio of 3:2*. Note: Most P&S cameras, and some DSLRs, have a 4:3 aspect ratio image sensor in them.

An 8x10 print is less rectangular and closer to being a square (1:1 aspect ratio) than the 3:2 aspect ratio and has an aspect ratio of 5:4. Consequently, to make a 5:4 aspect ratio print from a 3:2 aspect ratio image the 3:2 aspect ratio image has to be cropped. 












A 3:2 image (8 x 5.7) on  4:5 (8 x 10) print paper, so the photo doesn't have to be cropped &#8595; &#8595; &#8595;


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## 480sparky




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