Portrait Help Question

[RandySmith]

During my photography education along the way, I was taught and have tried very hard to examine the four corners of my view-finder and do as much in-camera cropping as possible. In doing this, I've possibly boxed myself into a corner ... when I try to post process my images, (example below) I lose part of the pictures when I get reprint orders for 8x10's, sometimes 5x7's. I know I need to back out when I'm shooting (the logical side of my brain) but when I'm in the heat of the shoot, I shoot tight as I've come accustomed to do ... I've been thinking about experimenting with some grid lines on a UV filter or something to basically outline an 8x10 so I won't forget ... but not sure if that will work .. If anyone has any recommendations that might help me in this, I'd sincerely appreciate some guidance. This may be an age old question, so hopefully my question and answers I get back might help some other folks along the way too.

Thanks.
Randy.

Here's a recent portrait I shot, that prints out great as 4x6, but obviously I lose some important details if cropped to 8x10.

[srwatters]

Some 35mm pro cameras have a removable focusing screen that can be etched with crop lines. I know the Canon Mk II and the D2X are that way. There are also companies that you can send your body to and they will etch them for you. Either way it's tough shooting 2x3 format for 4x5 prints without trashing too many pixels. Just forget the wacky 5x7. Gives me a headache!

[Holly]

This was one of the hardest things I had to overcome (and still screw up on sometimes). By nature, I like tighter crops...which freaking kill any hopes of "typical" enlargements. So now I'm learning to step back a bit..just leave a little room here and there. So much so that when I process formals from a wedding I always crop them back in for proofing because I don't like the way it looks. Yep it takes a lot longer....

As for making prints of any you cropped too tightly to start with....you could always print full frame (2:3 ratio) with white border edging it out to the requested frame size.

[AjP]

well u can't do anything with it. CROP is crop and u loose when u use different dimentions.. if u want to keep same looks 4x6.. use 10x15 or similar

[RandySmith]

Because this was a cheerleader competition, I may have provided myself an escape by adding a little as shown in the example below for the 8x10 ... I have a 1dmkII, and the screens I have aren't scribed with 5x7/8x10 lines ... I purchased the screen that has a grid hoping that would help, but it is more for landscape/architectural horizon alignments (which I like to use a lot to keep the horizon right) ...

Thanks for your thoughts.
Randy

[brad]

That last crop will work... with the advent of digital, a lot of places can now print 8x12 now as well as 8x10 .... if you have control over a matting and/or frame, that's an option, too.

Oh, and honestly, I had this problem even in the film days... 35mm negatives are still 2x3 ratio, so close crops were a problem even then. :)

[photosbymorgan2]

Originally Posted by RandySmith

Because this was a cheerleader competition, I may have provided myself an escape by adding a little as shown in the example below for the 8x10 ... I have a 1dmkII, and the screens I have aren't scribed with 5x7/8x10 lines ... I purchased the screen that has a grid hoping that would help, but it is more for landscape/architectural horizon alignments (which I like to use a lot to keep the horizon right) ...

Thanks for your thoughts.
Randy

I spent the money and purchased a Bright Screen with the 8 x 10 crop lines. It has helped greatly as I can tell what will be on an 8 x 10 print when composing the photo and I still have extra for the odd sizes as well.

[jheiliger]

This problem doesn't bite me anymore, but when I first started, it got me all the time. It was worse when shooting film... Now, I shoot everything like it is going to be an 8x10. The extra room never hurt.

I remember once when I first started in business, I shot some photos and made the same mistake. Except, the mom wanted a 16x20 print out of the negative, and I couldn't do it. Learned a valuable lesson though...

Look at Bright Screen as Morgan said... They are the best solution for what you are needing.


Joe

[jeffkohn]

I've found myself running into this issue as well. I know it's an issue and how to prevent it, but sometimes in the heat of shooting I still forget. After all the first thing you learn when starting to take photography seriously is to "fill the frame", un-learning that habit can be difficult.

For any D2x lurkers out there, somebody recently pointed out to me that the left/right boundaries for the HSC crop indicators also make very good 8x10 crop lines.

[RandySmith]

Appreciate the suggestions. Other than trying to find a can of "instant experience" looks like the Bright Screen might be a way for me to go. Thanks again.
Randy