Cropping for printing.

[Dylfish]

Hey guys,
ive got a few photos laying around which ive cropped quite substantially (for effect ) are there any cropping templates to which i can get the right ratio for printing dimensions?. also when printing what are the minimum dimensions for each print size before the quality goes down. is there a formula or way to work this out?

[kiwi]

Don't you crop to the size of the photo you want to be printed ? ie 4x6 or 8x10 or 5x7 and any combination larger ?

How much you can crop is very dependant on original pixels kept and sharpness

[Dylfish]

yeh using the photshop crop tool right? i do but im just wondering how much you can go before image degradation begins to come noticable.

[ShaneB]

yeh using the photshop crop tool right? i do but im just wondering how much you can go before image degradation begins to come noticable.

It depends on what you're doing. As a rule of thumb, images for viewing on a screen are 72 dpi, but for printing, you wouldn't want less than 240. 300 would be better.

Another thing: you should always edit a copy of your image. That way, you can always go back if soemthing goes wrong.

Regards

[Dylfish]

yeh i do, i shoot in raw then save to jpeg once. i change the res to 300dpi for printing. im just wondering how tightly you can crop before it become bad quality. my camera shoots @ 3888 x 25** somthing i think and if i crop 1/2 of it away whats the largers good quality print i could get?

[Dylfish]

if i want a photo @ 5x7 but i crop it to the right ratio but keep it as a larger res. it will be reduced wont it when i get it printed

[discontinued]

One way to work out a minimum is pick your resolution (so you've got 300dpi). Then the minimum for a 6x4 would be 6x300 x 4x300 = 1800x1200px. Any less then I think the quality may start to drop.

Or (just realised you wanted 5x7).. 5x300 x 7x300 = 1500x2100.. You could always drop it down to say 250dpi and even 150dpi if you have less pixels to work with.

[discontinued]

I'm pretty sure these are the aspect ratios for print sizes:

3:2 = 6x4
7:5 = 5x7
4:5 = 8x10
2:3 = 20x30

My camera is set to produce 3:2 ratio so if I'm getting 6x4s or 20x30s done I won't crop. If however, I want a 5x7 or 8x10 then I either use the crop tool with those numbers in inches or I use the ratio numbers instead.

And yes, 300dpi (however some say it doesn't matter as a photos are often only 72dpi straight off the camera)

Hope that helps.