Cropping

[eeyoreland]

This is a question probably straight out of Photography 101, but something I just don't understand. Let me start by saying I'm an amateur. I take pictures. I go onto my computer and crop them to 4x6. I upload them to Walgreens, Target, Shutterfly, whatever. The website tells me they have detected pictures from a digital camera and if I don't select the correct option, my photos will be cropped. If I have already cropped them to 4x6 and that's what I want, why do my pictures come back with heads chopped off? Should I NOT crop them on my computer and crop them on the photo website instead? Thanks for any input on the subject. Let me add. I want 4x6 pictures. Not the 3.94x5.78 or whatever Walgreens is trying to get me to change them to.

 

[GrillMouster]

In order for the image to be edge-to-edge (without white edges) on the print, they have to slighly increase the image dimensions and slightly crop the image. This cropping shouldn't be significant, but it's usually best to leave a little extra breathing room in the image.

Can you post an image that you've cropped to 4x6?

 

[SrisonS]

When you crop the pictures, are you sure you're saving the cropped version of the pic???? As in, "convert and save" or "export", or whatever your software calls it. You can't just crop it in a program, exit out, and count on the cropped version being there. You have to do one of the steps mentioned above.

I've had things printed from various places, an have never seen a cropping issue; and never a drastic one with main parts of the photo suffering.

 

[photo_chick]

This is a question probably straight out of Photography 101, but something I just don't understand. Let me start by saying I'm an amateur. I take pictures. I go onto my computer and crop them to 4x6. I upload them to Walgreens, Target, Shutterfly, whatever. The website tells me they have detected pictures from a digital camera and if I don't select the correct option, my photos will be cropped. If I have already cropped them to 4x6 and that's what I want, why do my pictures come back with heads chopped off? Should I NOT crop them on my computer and crop them on the photo website instead? Thanks for any input on the subject. Let me add. I want 4x6 pictures. Not the 3.94x5.78 or whatever Walgreens is trying to get me to change them to.

The size Walgreens is using... it's metric (100 x 150 mm) and what many of the lab machines use. Many labs call it a 4x6, but it really isn't. And there is no way around that. If you size it to 4x6 more than likely they're going to clip off the edges a tiny bit.

Personally I size mine to 4x6 on my computer and leave some space on the edges of my composition to accommodate the butchering that inevitably happens with a lab.