Printing to 4" x 6" a picture that IS NOT 3:2 ....

[alexruiz]

My wife is the one in charge of the pictures, but she still uses a film SLR (Nikon N65). We also have an Olympus D565 (4 MP, 2003 camera) that does a good job at snatching digitals. Being a P&S against her SLR, it is a one sided fight, so most of the important pictures were taken using her N65.

I wanted to eventually get her more and more into digital prints, but there is a little problem: The D565 sensor is 2288 x 1712, and a quick operations shows that it is a 4:3 instead of a 3:2. So, you print it to a 4 x 6 and you either leave side white bands if preserving the aspect ratio, or you will get the picture stretched, and thus, distorted.... She doesn't like either

In many cases, the borderless 4x6 looks decent, in some others it looks downright wrong... We have tried printing at home (Canon pixma MP780, brother MFC-240C, epson stylus R260) or sometimes going to a kiosk (costco, CVS, etc)

Printing at home I can preserve the aspect ratio, printing at those services it always stretched.... Yes, 4:3 looks better for larger prints, but 4x6 is the most popular size for a reason....

What is the solution you have found if printing to 4x6 and your image is not 3:2?
Maybe a program that could trim to 3:2?
I am considering a new camera, it is due time, but MOST of them still have the max quality settings at 4:3 instead of 3:2....


Thanks

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Cropping is the only other option really. In photoshop you can set the cropping tool to a specified aspect ratio.

 

[Deadtrees]

Originally posted by: alexruiz
My wife is the one in charge of the pictures, but she still uses a film SLR (Nikon N65). We also have an Olympus D565 (4 MP, 2003 camera) that does a good job at snatching digitals. Being a P&S against her SLR, it is a one sided fight, so most of the important pictures were taken using her N65.

I wanted to eventually get her more and more into digital prints, but there is a little problem: The D565 sensor is 2288 x 1712, and a quick operations shows that it is a 4:3 instead of a 3:2. So, you print it to a 4 x 6 and you either leave side white bands if preserving the aspect ratio, or you will get the picture stretched, and thus, distorted.... She doesn't like either

In many cases, the borderless 4x6 looks decent, in some others it looks downright wrong... We have tried printing at home (Canon pixma MP780, brother MFC-240C, epson stylus R260) or sometimes going to a kiosk (costco, CVS, etc)

Printing at home I can preserve the aspect ratio, printing at those services it always stretched.... Yes, 4:3 looks better for larger prints, but 4x6 is the most popular size for a reason....

What is the solution you have found if printing to 4x6 and your image is not 3:2?
Maybe a program that could trim to 3:2?
I am considering a new camera, it is due time, but MOST of them still have the max quality settings at 4:3 instead of 3:2....


Thanks

All Dslrs, except FourThrids, have 3:2 frame.
When it comes to Point and Shoot cameras, Panasonic cameras offer 3:2 frame as well as 4:3 and 16:9.

 

[Jawo]

Cropping is your only option....I fought with that for years.

 

[alexruiz]

Thanks for the replies.... so with this camera cropping is my only option I see...
Any suggestion as how to crop them the fastest? What program is easy and fast for those batch croppings?

Oh, and I will make sure the next camera we get supports 3:2.....

 

[corkyg]

For easy cropping I suggest the freeware, Irfanview. It does batch editing as well, but cropping involves composition, and really should not be done blindly.

 

[Jawo]

Originally posted by: corkyg
For easy cropping I suggest the freeware, Irfanview. It does batch editing as well, but cropping involves composition, and really should not be done blindly.

Yup....found out the hard way many many moons ago when pictures came back with heads chopped off

 

[randomlinh]

Originally posted by: alexruiz
Thanks for the replies.... so with this camera cropping is my only option I see...
Any suggestion as how to crop them the fastest? What program is easy and fast for those batch croppings?

Oh, and I will make sure the next camera we get supports 3:2.....

that's actually pretty rare unless it's a digital SLR. I've only seen a handful of p&s digitals that do 3:2... and now they are starting to do 16:9/16:10.... which I'm pretty sure is just in camera cropping.