Will certain sized prints or canvases be cropped?
Yes, and it gets a bit confusing because there are so many options to choose from. I can tell you that hardly any of the photos on this site will let you print a “normal” size like 8×10, 11×14, etc. You will need to either have a custom mat cut or be ok hiding some of the picture behind a standard mat. So unfortunately, buying an 11×14 frame with an 8×10 mat and putting one of these photos in it will result in some cropping of the photo (hiding under the mat). Or you may have to cut the photo if you wanted to use it in a standard sized frame without a mat.
You will be presented with the options of the size to be printed when you order the print (again, you will not see typical sizes here due to the fact that there’s a border around the image which includes my signature). People tend to miss this…so you are being educated on that here.
In simple terms:
- Most photos are rectangular (whether it be in portrait or landscape), so they will print best when kept that “shape.”
- If you buy a square print, there will be cropping as you can’t fit an entire rectangle in a square without distorting it massively, so instead edges will get cropped out. This does affect the look of the print, naturally.
- The GOOD NEWS is that when you choose a size, it will ask you to either center it or crop it so you know what it will look like. If it’s not acceptable, you can choose another size which may suit you better.
- Remember that a canvas usually wraps the edges around the frame so you will be shown red areas that will not be seen on the front of the canvas. Those areas will be wrapped (still visible) but essentially crop the picture a bit.
To explain it a bit better, please read the following:
Aspect ratio defines how sides of a rectangle relate to each other. For example, 1920×1280, 3456×2304 and 5184×3456 photos all have an aspect ratio of 3:2, while 3072×2304 or 2272×1704 resolutions correspond to an aspect ratio of 4:3. The bulk of digital cameras today are either 3:2 or 4:3. The problem begins when you want to print photos.
Typical photo print sizes are 4×6, 5×7, 8×10, 8×12, 11×14 and some others. Among them, only few match the aspect ratio of digital cameras. Particularly, 6×8 photos have an aspect ratio of 4:3 and 8×12 corresponds to an aspect ratio of 3:2. Whenever you need printing a different size photo, you have a problem. Unequal aspect ratios will force you to crop images to make them fit.
Let’s say you want to make an 8×10 print of a photo taken with your 3:2 DSLR camera. As we have seen earlier, the aspect ratio of 3:2 matches an 8×12 print. Which means you have to crop 2 inches of the picture!*