Odd Aspect Ratios - printing 4 x 6

[carusowi]

I shot a birthday party for two friends (husband and wife). Space was crowded, but I wanted candids, so I shot using a long lens from a distance snagging shots of relatively distant subjects grabbed between heads and shoulders that were between the subject and me.

I am pleased with the results, but on several shots, to avoid clutter, I cropped which resulted in odd shaped photos. Some are square, some are rather oblong rectangles, etc.

These shots give a web-based slide show some nice variety, but my friends want to have a set of prints.

The shots with normal or near normal aspect ratios are no problem, but what would you do with these special crops.

I've tried adjusting the scale factor on these. Depending upon the subject placement, it works for some of the shots, not for others.

As I see it, my choices are to go back to the original uncropped file and print it scaling up to achieve a crop factor that is as closed to my desired crop as possible (filling the balance of the 4 x 6 with part of the clutter I had hoped to eliminate when I cropped originally) or to print the cropped version leaving white unprinted paper on the borders.

Does anyone have any other suggestions?

Thanks.

Caruso

[azato]

Why don't you post the ORIGINALS of the "clutter shots" online and post a link to them.

When I crop, I do so with a print (some day) in mind. If it needs to be more square I use a 4:5 ratio (8x10) but sometimes that doesn't work. Often, in my photo software (PSP 10) I will put a new layer, apply paint black over areas I want to hid, apply gaussian blur and then adjust the opacity.

In the picture below I used this method for clearing out clutter underneath the bumper.

http://www.pbase.com/azato/image/90220482


Sometimes I cannot completely remove it, but I can "tone it down" as I did with the field in this picture

http://www.pbase.com/azato/image/91149677




Grace and Peace,
Jeff Jones

I shot a birthday party for two friends (husband and wife). Space was crowded, but I wanted candids, so I shot using a long lens from a distance snagging shots of relatively distant subjects grabbed between heads and shoulders that were between the subject and me.

I am pleased with the results, but on several shots, to avoid clutter, I cropped which resulted in odd shaped photos. Some are square, some are rather oblong rectangles, etc.

These shots give a web-based slide show some nice variety, but my friends want to have a set of prints.

The shots with normal or near normal aspect ratios are no problem, but what would you do with these special crops.

I've tried adjusting the scale factor on these. Depending upon the subject placement, it works for some of the shots, not for others.

As I see it, my choices are to go back to the original uncropped file and print it scaling up to achieve a crop factor that is as closed to my desired crop as possible (filling the balance of the 4 x 6 with part of the clutter I had hoped to eliminate when I cropped originally) or to print the cropped version leaving white unprinted paper on the borders.

Does anyone have any other suggestions?

Thanks.

Caruso

[carusowi]

Thanks for the reply and suggestions, Jeff.
I already posted these pics on gmail using picassa2 for my friends to review. They have requested a disc - not certain if I want to do that or just have them download the images from gmail.

The chevy turck pic idea worked well in that image.

My shots are all of people surrounded by people, so the crops cut out people.

I've been experimenting by using InDesign to compile 4 x 6 photo montages. It's not ideal, but at least gets these images on paper.

A couple very oblong crops I just expanded using InDesign, then filled the balance of the blank frame with a square of black.

I may do more of that sort of thing - at least the image remains relatively large as opposed to plopping three or for images onto a 4 x 6.

I know there is no good solution (other than to have thrown those images away). Without cropping, IMO, they have no value. Cropped, there are some very interesting images.

Thanks again for your input.

Caruso

[marxz]

maybe I'm missing something here but I don't have a problem with printing "odd size" crops.... I'm no purist with ratios, personally I think you should crop to the ratio that best frames the image (rather than the purist frame the image to fit the ratio approach)
I'll usually shoot knowing I'll crop it a certain way (square, long vertical... what ever). I do most of my printing my self so I often find I can arrange a couple of odd size crops to fit on to a single larger page size (so 2 long prints will get printed side by side on a single A3 sheet) so as to not waste paper. If your not a DIY prints type person or your needing biger than A3 (or what ever your printer can handle) you can combine shots like this in to a single large standard ratio file in photoshop if you wish to print these commercially. another option is to find a print shop that has a large roll type inkjet printer (my local print shop use one of the A0 width Epson roll inkjets)

Many printing places don't have tools to do proper paper cropping to cut these, but a roller guillotine to do the job your self is not that expensive (practice a few times on duff prints or some scraps of photo paper to get the hang of how it cuts the paper your going to feed it, I find inkjet paper drags quite a bit more than normal cartridge paper.

With framing the main issue is that commercially bought frames usually have their mats (the card that goes over and actually "frames" the image) cut to standard ratios... the solution is to cut your own mats.
Mat cutters, which cut that nice angled bevel in to the mat, take a bit of time to get your skills up so that you don't mangle the corners (cut through leaving a cross type corner or cut short leaving tufts of mat fibre showing) but you can cut to any size/ratio and gives you the ability to chose mats of different colours than the commercially made frames supply (which is pretty much universally white, and the occasional black), some mats are available that give a different colour bevel to face and you can even combine a couple thinner mats of different colours for even more variety...... or, once again you can get it done commercially - a commercial art framer will cut mats to fit your images and frame (for a fee of course)

[azato]

WELLLLL......

I think you have a point. It all depends on what "floats your boat." What you think is fun I find annoying. It all depends on what you want your final output to be. I want things to be in standard sizes so that I can easily print (I don't print them myself i go through MPIX.com) and us a standard cut mat. Also, if you want to share them with others it is much more convenient to crop at a standard size.

HOWEVER...I tip my hat to you - you are taking the 'higher road'. I have a gallery of images (http://www.pbase.com/azato/moo) cropped at a ratio to make MOO cards (moo.com). I found that the tight cropping made many of my pictures cropped at standard ratios even better. I think my way wins for convenience, your way wins for artistic merit.


Grace and Peace,
Jeff Jones

maybe I'm missing something here but I don't have a problem with printing "odd size" crops.... I'm no purist with ratios, personally I think you should crop to the ratio that best frames the image (rather than the purist frame the image to fit the ratio approach)
I'll usually shoot knowing I'll crop it a certain way (square, long vertical... what ever). I do most of my printing my self so I often find I can arrange a couple of odd size crops to fit on to a single larger page size (so 2 long prints will get printed side by side on a single A3 sheet) so as to not waste paper. If your not a DIY prints type person or your needing biger than A3 (or what ever your printer can handle) you can combine shots like this in to a single large standard ratio file in photoshop if you wish to print these commercially. another option is to find a print shop that has a large roll type inkjet printer (my local print shop use one of the A0 width Epson roll inkjets)

Many printing places don't have tools to do proper paper cropping to cut these, but a roller guillotine to do the job your self is not that expensive (practice a few times on duff prints or some scraps of photo paper to get the hang of how it cuts the paper your going to feed it, I find inkjet paper drags quite a bit more than normal cartridge paper.

With framing the main issue is that commercially bought frames usually have their mats (the card that goes over and actually "frames" the image) cut to standard ratios... the solution is to cut your own mats.
Mat cutters, which cut that nice angled bevel in to the mat, take a bit of time to get your skills up so that you don't mangle the corners (cut through leaving a cross type corner or cut short leaving tufts of mat fibre showing) but you can cut to any size/ratio and gives you the ability to chose mats of different colours than the commercially made frames supply (which is pretty much universally white, and the occasional black), some mats are available that give a different colour bevel to face and you can even combine a couple thinner mats of different colours for even more variety...... or, once again you can get it done commercially - a commercial art framer will cut mats to fit your images and frame (for a fee of course)

[marxz]

WELLLLL......

I think you have a point. It all depends on what "floats your boat." What you think is fun I find annoying.

fun... hmmm maybe... more that when I was at art school we had to frame all our work, prints, paintings, photos etc etc ourselves ... so coming back to photography 25 or so years later I still had all the tools and stuff and 3 years worth of (rusty) skills.

[azato]

After reading my quote, I hope I did not come across wrong . Re-reading it comes across a bit stronger than I wanted (almost a bit pretentious) . I don't think you took it wrong but just to be sure...

Some people enjoy details and some people don't. I wish I was more of a detailed type person but I am not. I think at the end of the day, your finished product will be more "perfect". The sacrifice for that perfection is time.

In answering the question, I made the mistake of answering based on my point of view which did not represent the only nor the best road to take.

WELLLLL......

I think you have a point. It all depends on what "floats your boat." What you think is fun I find annoying.

fun... hmmm maybe... more that when I was at art school we had to frame all our work, prints, paintings, photos etc etc ourselves ... so coming back to photography 25 or so years later I still had all the tools and stuff and 3 years worth of (rusty) skills.

[gilp]

Just create a "standardized" canvas (4x6, 6x7 ect) and then insert the cropped image in them, in some cases, you'll need to size down, other size up and you'll get a border, but they will all be the same print size