Sizing for Print without cropping

[Coach_Dwayne]

I believe that I am losing my mind here.  Please Help.  I shoot on a canon 5dIII  ( Raw + JPeg  5760x3840), and own Photoshop Elements 10.  I shot some family group photos.  I framed leaving little headroom, but love the composition.  I never expected for the image to be cropped for any reason.  My mother in law wants to get the images printed at a box store as 5x7's and 8x10's.  For each of those sizes, the photo lab keeps cropping heads off of the images.  So, I realize that I need to send her properly sized files.  I cannot for the life of me figure out how to resize the images, without having to crop them.  Is this impossible.  When I choose Image, Resize, and unclick Resample, I cannot enter 5x7 or 8x10.  I also cannot enter those sizes with Resample clicked on.  I've read and watched tutorials, but am still confused.  Is this not possible to do without having to crop some portion of the image?  Here's a really embarassing question as well:  When I see 5x7 I'm interpreting that as 5 High x 7 Wide is that correct?  Thank you for your time.

[Little_Pale_Face · Accepted solution]

Hi,

The simple answer is - you can't.

The three sizes have different aspect ratios (long side size / short side size):-

5760 x 3840 = 1.5

7 x 5 = 1.4

10 x 8 = 1.25

You have two options, either have prints done with borders so that there is no cropping or if you want borderless prints you will need to crop. If you try to make the full image fit on the paper, it will distort the image.

I very rarely frame my photos tightly because of the possible need to crop later. The crop tool has presets for 5 x7 and 10 x 8. You will need to produce two copies of each image if you want to cope with both print sizes and have control over the cropping.

Please come back if you need further help.

Brian

[nealeh]

Coach Dwayne, here's the problem Brian is describing:

The left image is  5760 x 3840 pixels - as your original photo (ratio 1.5:1)

The right image is the first image resized to  10" x 8" (ratio 1.25:1)

So you can resize to the dimensions you describe, but if you do resize to a mismatched ratio the image will be distorted.

sueroyalpei - you should have asked here first - PSE can resize images very simply.

Cheers,
--
Neale
Insanity is hereditary, you get it from your children

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[Coach_Dwayne]

Thank you everyone for all of the prompt and wonderful feedback.  Given the information that I've read here, I'm now wondering why this is never an issue on point and shoot cameras, or have I simply never noticed?  Is it because it's easier to make a large photo out of a smaller amount of pixels?

This information will completely change the way that I shoot from now on.  I will have to shoot for the edit I suppose.  For anyone that cares:  I just discovered that there is a feature in the 5dmkIII that will allow me to see grids for different aspect ratio's on the screen if I shoot in live view.  Not sure how helpful a live view grid will be in anything other than family group photos but, it's a feature that I at least know about now. 

This also presents another new question.  Are there any negative reasons to crop and add more dpi than 300 if the raw file is importing at something like 240 dpi?  I've read that most printers won't be able to resolve more than 300, but can it hurt to add beyond 300?

[Little_Pale_Face]

Hi,

Your original image size of 5760 x 3840 is the same aspect ratio as a 6 x 4 print which is a very popular size for point and shoot photos. Perhaps you have been getting 6 x 4 prints up to now.

Brian

[hatstead]

A third option is to place the entire picture on a large canvas, and put something else along with it.

For example, consider a team picture, and the school banner displayed artfully!

[sueroyalpei]

I was very disapointed to find this in Elements,I had to buy an entirely new program just to resize my pictures

VERY  disapointed this great program has no resize feature.

[mytaxsite]

This has nothing to do with PSE not able to resize your picture; This

is all about mathematics of images. If you want your picture to be 7x5

then it is possible subject to "slight" deterioration of the image

quality or you could sacrifice the height by going for: 7x4.66667. Or

you could go for 7.5x5.

You will not find any programs that can do exactly as you want it

without sacrificing the quality. You just need to try it and see what

is possible.

G/L