Cropping question.

[digitaldude400d]

I have had problems in the past (not often) of trying to get the crop that I want. An example is that I recently shot a family of five, all standing and when I tried to crop to print an 8x10 I couldnt get everyone in it.

I know that there are some companies out there that install guides on your camera to help make sure you are shooting for the crop you want but is there some way to do this without adding anything to your camera?

Thanks for any suggestions.

[PIC]

Experience !!!

[PeteQ]

While PIC's one word answer is certainly valid let me try to expand on it a bit and offer one tip that you might be able to use while you build that experience.

In most viewfinders there are multiple focus points and many of them are visible regardless of what focus point is active. Sometimes you can use these points as a rough guide for your cropping until you get more comfortable.

Here's a rough representation of what I am talking about. (Before other people jump in, yes this is not the pattern of all viewfinders, no it may not work the same in yours. This is just to give an idea.) The red lines are a 4x5 crop. You can see that you can easily use the outer focus points to give you a good idea of where an 8x10 would fit but you are giving up a lot of pixels. The bigger red crop is still a 4x5 crop but now you are at least using the whole vertical resolution of the sensor. And lastly, the blue is a 5x7 crop. We can see that it is so close to a 4x6 is rarely gives people trouble.

Go outside and shoot something using your focus points as a guide and find out what works for your camera. Then practice, practice, practice.

Good luck!

[Wil_Bloodworth]

Jere,

In addition to what has already been said. I will typically zoom out on purpose... giving you two things: 1. More room to crop to any ratio. and 2. More depth of field because you're at a shorter focal length.

Try that next time and even though you may throw a little bit of the image away around the edges, you'll be able to keep everyone in the photo regardless of the crop ratio.

Merry Christmas,

- Wil

[digitaldude400d]

Thank you all for your input! It has been very helpful and I will be putting all of this into practice. Hopefully I wont have as many issues now.

And Merry Christmas to you all!

Jere

[PeteQ]

And as one more side note. There are folks who purposefully do not shot or crop to a normal aspect ratio, instead preferring to crop the image as they like and having it custom framed. Great if you are selling frames as part of the deal!

That being said, that is one of the reasons that I enjoy designing the wedding albums for my clients. I am free to crop the images as I see fit and not have to stick to a predefined ratio. I makes the book that much more unique.

[MicWayWal]

If you want to know where an 8x10 will crop in your camera, view an 8x10 print through your viewfinder. Put the two long edges of the print to the long edges of the frame. Make a note of what focus points the other sides are near and use those for your guide. Then you can get a permanent marker and make your own marks .

Due to the popularity of 8x10 being a common asked for size, I always compose a image so I can make 8x10 prints without losing necessary elements from the image.

When I can't manage, I drop the entire image on an 8x10 canvas, create a background and presto I have an 8x10.