This is a simple post, but it’s an important one. Not all prints are created equally. Our cameras take photos at a 4×6 aspect ratio. That means that if you want to order a 4×6 of an image, it will come out looking exactly like you see it in the proof gallery (only prettier, because we will have retouched it). Same goes for an 8×12, 12×18, 16×24, and so on, because those are all multiples of the original 4×6 ratio (okay, technically it’s a 2×3 ratio, so 6×9, 10×15, 14×21, and so on would also work).
However.. Let’s say you want to purchase a 5×7, 8×10, 11×14, or 16×20. In that case, we would have to crop a significant portion of the photo to do this. Again, this is much easier to show than to explain…
Here is one photo shown at a 4×6, 5×7, and 8×10 aspect ratio.
As you can see, we lose a lot of the cool background as we have to crop in more and more, but each photo still looks okay. The real trouble comes when you have a photo that is tightly cropped to begin with. Such as this one…
The more we crop, the more of her head and her dress we lose.
There are a few ways to avoid this problem. The first, and the one we recommend most, is to order custom print sizes. This allows us to choose the best crop for that specific photo, and gives us more artistic freedom. There is no additional fee for this service, and typically we just charge you the cost of the closest “normal” print size. However, these images would need to be custom matted or custom framed, which is often a higher cost.
Another option is to stretch the photo to fit this size. We strongly urge you NOT to choose this option. Rarely, very rarely, this turns out okay, but more often than not, it just looks terrible. Here is an example of an original photo, and the stretched version:
Another option is to add a border. We have a number of border options, but the two most popular are the keyline (a thin border around the photo with a larger border around that) and the sloppy border. Here are examples of those: (note: a thin border has been added to the sloppy border example to separate it from the webpage background)
Also, unusually shaped images (such as collages, or long, skinny group formals) can ONLY be purchased with custom print sizes. Please contact us for more info about ordering a custom print.
