I got a new digital camera (5.0 mega pixels) a few weeks back and I’ve been taking pictures left and right lately
I want ot print out some pics but I’m running into a bit of trouble.
I’m running Photoshop CS and When I try to print a raw image that I’ve uploaded form the my camera the result is cropped rather unceremoniously. I figured this was because a 5.0 megapixel image is not the correct ratio for a perfect 4x6 print.
So I opened up a new image with the Photoshop standards for a 4x6 inch print. Then I copied the raw image into the new document and resized it so that what I wanted to fit, fit, and left the parts I could do without, well out.
I truly believed that woudl work, but alas my printer is still cropping the pics! The only thing I could think of being the problem is that the ratio really isn’t 4 x 6 but some obscure, you’d never know it, combination like 4.00123 x 5.678 or some such.
How are the photos strangely cropped? Is it their position on the paper that’s running into the printer’s margins? Are you printing on 4x6 paper or 8.5x11?
Save a copy of your image and then use the Image -> Image Size command to resize it to 4*6. Failing that use “Resize Image” under the Help menu to do it for you. (I assume this feature’s in CS. I’m running 7.0).
If you’re going to crop, use the crop tool rather than letting the image run off the edge of the canvas.
The problem is that many digital cameras have an aspect ratio of 4:3, whereas a 6x4" print (and regular 35mm film) has an aspect ratio of 3:2. So, to print a picture from a digital camera on 4x6 paper, you either have to crop the picture at the top and bottom (for a landscape shot), or downsize it so that you have some photo paper left over on the sides.
The best thing to do, i think, is to open the picture in Photoshop, and select the Rectangular Marquee Tool. Then, in the Style drop-down menu (in the toolbar at the top of the page) select Fixed Aspect Ratio. Set the ratio at Width=3, Height=2 (or vice versa for portrait format), and then use the marquee tool to select the crop that best suits you. Select Image > Crop. and voila, you will have a picture in the correct ratio for a 4x6 (or 6x4) inch print.
Note: I don’t have a photo printer, and i’m not an expert on printing by any means. But i do know about the aspect ratios, and i often use the Rectangular Marquee tool to change the ratios of my shots. Someone else, though, mioght have a better way to fix your problem.
A more elegant approch, but basically the same thing is to chose the crop key from the toolbat, it kinda looks like 2 90 degree angles overlapping each other, sortof (well, you’ll find it) Click on that, set the ascpect to whatever you want it Width 4, height 6 (I assume is what you want) (also don’t forget to tell the printer if you’re doing this as a portrait or landscape). Then drag over a section of the picture, if you start outside the picture, it won’t put down the outside edges until you get to the edge of the picture (if that doesn’t make sense, try it and it will), then just drag to whevever you want the other corner. A few tips, the aspect ratio is fixed, so you don’t have to worry about that. The crop tool will ‘stop’ when you’ve reached the maximum (in this case 4X6, you can pick it up and making it bigger if you want to and understand the results. Another very nice thing about the crop tool, is that everything that is going to be cropped will be shaded out in the picture, this gives you a chance to move the box around to frame it just right, when it’s all set, hit Enter and you’ll get you’re new pic (ctrl-Atlt-Z will undo). Also, make sure you go to your printer settings and make sure you tell if it’s landscape or portriat, what size paper your putting in and what quality to print/type of paper), then go to file and click “Print with preview” This will show you exactly how you picture is going to look on paper, and gives you a good chance to change something instread of using a piece of paper to find out someone’s head is lopped of.
