# Help my Clients say my pictures are to big!



## Casey carson (Dec 10, 2015)

I'm hoping there's a solution! I'm about ready to pull my hair out! I've tried scaling down the photo and they still seem to be to big for any type of collage that they are trying to do! HELP thank you! I will post a few....I should know what to do but I really am at a loss


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## Dillard (Dec 10, 2015)

What is the maximum file size they need? Those files are already pretty tiny!


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## Casey carson (Dec 10, 2015)

see thats what I thought...but they say they are to big and would like them more "zoomed out" so do you think I'm doing anything wrong or they just want something that can't be done cause I zoomed up to close to do a tight crop....ugh. I also tried to do a collage myself with their pictures, and some of them were cut off but it all depended on the size of the square of the collage...


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## astroNikon (Dec 10, 2015)

I think your clients are trying to do something that they don't know how to do.
They probably don't know how to resize an image (in an editor or any type, grab a corner and make smaller).

Maybe you should offer them your services (for a fee) to create the collage that they want.


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## Casey carson (Dec 10, 2015)

astroNikon said:


> I think your clients are trying to do something that they don't know how to do.
> They probably don't know how to resize an image (in an editor or any type, grab a corner and make smaller).
> 
> Maybe you should offer them your services (for a fee) to create the collage that they want.




Thank you! This is starting to make me feel better because I've never run into this problem with any other client and it was starting to stress me out and make me second guess myself! I do know they are trying to use shutterfly.


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## snowbear (Dec 10, 2015)

If you are trying to print, it looks like #3 is about 3x5 at 300 dpi - try setting the dpi to 600 and it will print at half the size.


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## 480sparky (Dec 10, 2015)

snowbear said:


> If you are trying to print, it looks like #3 is about 3x5 at 300 dpi - try setting the dpi to 600 and it will print at half the size.



That's my assumption here.  They don't know how to set up the image so it prints out the size they want.

This is why one shouldn't just hand over a CD of files.


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## Casey carson (Dec 10, 2015)

480sparky said:


> snowbear said:
> 
> 
> > If you are trying to print, it looks like #3 is about 3x5 at 300 dpi - try setting the dpi to 600 and it will print at half the size.
> ...




Agreed...now that I'm starting to make this a my full time business since I'm a stay at home mommy..I think I will stop with the cds!


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## Casey carson (Dec 10, 2015)

Does anyone have suggestion on the size I should shoot with...my camera is set up at large images...I have large, medium, and small. Should I keep it at Large?


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## 480sparky (Dec 10, 2015)

Always shoot Large. You can always downsize in post, but you can never upsize.


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## dennybeall (Dec 10, 2015)

Just as an example on the second one you can change the DPI from 300 to 100 or even 80 and save it at quality 6 and reduce the file size from 2.9 meg to as low as 97.3kb and it'll still look OK, as here.


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## Casey carson (Dec 10, 2015)

480sparky said:


> Always shoot Large. You can always downsize in post, but you can never upsize.



Ok thats what I thought. see these people have me second guessing myself!


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## Casey carson (Dec 10, 2015)

Ok so I figured it out..I think. They finally explained to me that my pictures are not all "square" they are mostly all vertical so thats why they are not all fitting into the collage boxes!! so no matter how much I scale down not all of them are going to fit in the boxes


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## 480sparky (Dec 10, 2015)

Then you need to crop.  If they still can't be made square, you can resize and unlock the 'keep aspect ratio' and possibly resize one dimension more than the other.  But be careful doing this.... too much and it starts to become obvious.  Usually, only a 10% difference is the most you can get away with.


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## fernandezinmecca (Dec 11, 2015)

This..


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## fernandezinmecca (Dec 11, 2015)

I believe the client was concerned more about how tight the crop isbin these photos than the file size. Shoot wider and let this client do the cropping .

Sent from my LG-D850 using Tapatalk


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## Derrel (Dec 11, 2015)

Casey carson said:
			
		

> Ok so I figured it out..I think. They finally explained to me that my pictures are not all "square" they are mostly all vertical so thats why they are not all fitting into the collage boxes!! so no matter how much I scale down not all of them are going to fit in the boxes



They might really want to consider a three-shot collage, with two squares stacked atop one another, and then a single "tall" image on one side.

The problem is not yours, directly, but it's the kind of hassle that arises when non-photography people decide to do something that, to do well and properly, requires pre-planning. For example...the posing determines that "some shots" simply MUST be a tall or a wide aspect ratio photo! A banquet table shot with six diners at the table, seated, is most likely gonna need to be a "wide"...same with the family + dog in front of the tree in PJ's, sitting on the floor...the way it was shot, from as close as it was shot, is almost impossible to show properly as a square shot and include the dog and their butts sittin' on the floor with the child low in the frame...the way it was framed and shot means it's almost irreversibly a tall shot...

One of the things we can do these days is to shoot fairly loose, and crop in, with a high-rez camera that's much more easily done than it used to be with say a 35mm camera or a 6 MP d-slr. Old-school square format medium-format film shooters could also do this: crop to a tall or a wide, and still make a good frame.


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## Dave442 (Dec 11, 2015)

A good point that is easy to overlook; what is it that the client plans to do with the photos. I hope you have some from farther back, it could make it easier to get to a decent square crop.


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## dennybeall (Dec 11, 2015)

Is it possible the client is just trying to get out of paying for the shoot? No matter what you suggest they want different.


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## fernandezinmecca (Dec 11, 2015)

dennybeall said:


> Is it possible the client is just trying to get out of paying for the shoot? No matter what you suggest they want different.


Let's hope they paid up front! Always get paid up front, no ifs and or buts...

Sent from my LG-D850 using Tapatalk


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## Bebulamar (Dec 11, 2015)

I think your client think you compose your picture too tight. They want you to zoom out more in another word to include more background so the people in the pictures are not so big.


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## 480sparky (Dec 11, 2015)

Take away this one hint:

*Shoot everything both in landscape and portrait orientations.*


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