Cropping — how do you do it?

" The world just does not fit conveniently into the format of a 35mm camera,” W. Eugene Smith

My final image presentation is a print. I tend to not like the 2x3 aspect ratio for prints preferring, 4x5 or 3x4. For portraits I often use the classical 5x7. For some shots I use a square format. By limiting the aspect ratios to a set of predefined values, I only have to keep around a limited subset of precut mats. I also tend to know the aspect ratio of the final print at the time I visualize the scene prior to taking the capture. In the case I end up with an oddball aspect ratio, I will have to order a custom precut mat. That not a big deal but it adds to the timeline of producing the print.

I’ve always cut my own mats. I used several “professional” Logan mat cutters for a number of years. They were always a PIA although they were a kind of standard in framing shops.

Then I got an Esterly wall mounted mat cutter. Essentially a manual CNC machine. I can have any size mat in seconds almost effortlessly, accurate to a few thousandths of an inch.

It’s so enjoyable to be able to crop just as I want and to be able to mat the image exactly that way. Only a few standard frame sizes are needed but I make custom sized frames occasionally.

Rich

While I am not full on Henri Cartier-Bresson - thou shall not crop - type of guy, I do prefer to do my cropping in the camera and not in the processing. I spent most of my film days with a 3x4 aspect ratio (645), 6x6, 6x7 (very close to 4x5) and 4x5 and 5x7 view cameras. I never liked the 2x3 aspect ratio of 35 mm. I aways cropped away the edges but made the maximal use of the short side of the film. It is a habit I picked up back when one cropped on the enlarger. It may be 55 years of printing but more often than not my preferred aspect ration is 5x7 for portraits, 3x4 or 4x5 for landscape, square for some unique compositions and 4x5 for most everything else. Every once in awhile I will crop to a long narrow aspect ratio. For those cases I will have a custom mat cut.

I played around with cutting my own mats for awhile. I found that I could better spend my time out taking images and in the dark room rather than cutting mats. Today, I find it is just as easy to drop an order at Frame Destination or some other shop and get the size I want in the aspect ratio I want. For a 16x20 frame I normally use a mat with a 12x15 opening.

Hi,

I always print. I always have. And my favorite print size is 8x10 and then the prints either go into a frame or into a PrintFile sleeve into a 3 ring binder. This is as true with digital as it was with film.

So I frame with that in mind such that I am cropping only one side, the long side, to fit the image as shot onto the paper.

I roll (get it?) with the idea that if I'm cropping in both directions then I have done something wrong.

These days, I use a 50 MP class medium format digital camera most of the time. In addition to printing 8x10 I am also printing 16x20. Same aspect ratio, but now it's from a 4:3 sensor rather than a 3:2 one.

Stan

I have a darkroom with boxes full of prints I guess I have not looked at for 20 years or more. Unless you frame them and put them on a wall, prints accumulate in boxes somewhere in the house.

I look at my pictures on my big screen that doubles up for a monitor for CAD and FEM work. I guess it it is the modern equivalent of transparencies.

I make Blurb books, when I have the time and energy to put on together. These I look at from time to time as they live in my bookcase.

I tried printing at home back in the day. It is very expensive. So I get prints made when I need one. It is cheaper, and they are generally better that those I made at home.

Ebooks are cool if you find the right software. I use Book Creator. It is meant for educational use, and you are supposed to be a teacher to sign up for the free version. Here is an example of a book I made.

Hi,

I sell a print now and then. Not enough to really say so. I'm on my 4th digital photo printer since 1999. So the expense isn't nearly as large as what all those cameras cost during the same timeframe. 16 by count now. Started with a Nikon E2. The issue was, they kept making the cameras better, so I had to keep buying yet another one.

My use for prints are coffee table books and hanging on walls. I keep changing what's framed and on the walls and put what comes off into those binders.

As far as medium format goes, I used film 645 for superior 8x10 prints vs 135 format. And the same is true with digital. My small format is 16 MP while my medium format is 645 (slightly smaller sensor size v film,.but that's what they make).

Stan

Broadly, I prefer to compose and shoot in the native aspect ratio of whatever sensor I am using and try to get my desired composition in camera, so most of my images do not need additional cropping in post production. My main cameras use a 4:3 ratio and it's really grown on me after learning with 2:3 ratio cameras. If I crop in post production, I pick the aspect ratio first and then crop as needed- I print often enough that having standard ratio crops helps with consistency. I will freehand crop an image if it's best but outside of panoramic stitch captures it's extremely rare for me to do so.

I agree with @Athena.

FastStone Image Viewer shows us just how many "standard" aspect ratios there are ... so many that I needed two screenshots to show them all !!

In the second image my 1920x1200px monitor appears to be missing even though that size is WUXGA - a standard screen, grump.

Personally I crop to what suits the captured content, not that I shoot much these days ...

A big WOW for FastStone ...

I was looking at the various print crop sizes with an image opened having it's EXIF res. at 180 ppi when opened.

Casually, I set the crop to 5x7 inches and saved the image with no further adjustments. The new file had it's res. reset to 344 ppi by FastStone, not me.

I don't print and had never noticed that before now.

I thought it was a wood-stove but couldn't see a chimney ... 😉