Among the complaints we’ve received about photo prints, one of the more common complaints concerns unwanted cropping. This complaint is caused not by errors in processing or printing, but by the curiosities of the differences among now-standard photo print sizes: 4×6, 5×7 and 8×10.

The problem stems from the three different ratios represented by those three print sizes. Because the ratio of most camera sensors and the 4×6 print is the same (3:2), no cropping is necessary to print an image at that size. The original file at the 3:2 ratio is shown here:

The next step up, a 5×7 print, carries a 7:5 ratio rather than a 3:2 ratio, a pesky fact that is mathematically obvious but not well-advertised to the general public.  That discrepancy means some cropping must occur to produce a 5×7 print.  An image with the necessary cropping faded out is shown here:

That’s a relatively small amount of cropping, but it can be enough to cause problems if there’s no expendable space on the ends of the image.

The real fun begins when an image has to be crammed into an 8×10 print.  Simple multiplication reveals that a 3:2 print would be not 8×10, but 8×12; the latter is generally available, but for some severely inconvenient reason, the former (which represents a 5:4 ratio) is considered standard.  Substantial cropping totaling a full two inches is necessary to produce an 8×10 print, as shown here:

As you can tell, that amount of cropping is more than enough to include desired content in many photos.

Now that you’ve seen the problem, keep those examples in mind when you order prints.  We post our sports and community images in the original 3:2 ratio because those are most often ordered at the 4×6 print size, but as of summer 2010, we post portrait session images in the 7:5 ratio to minimize the necessary cropping when those photos are ordered at other sizes.  Posting at 7:5 means both 4×6 and 8×10 prints will be cropped (the former on the sides, the latter on the ends), but the amount of cropping will be comparable to the cropping shown in the second photo above.  We also make an effort to leave enough space on the edges to avoid problems with necessary cropping.

If you have any questions about print ratios and cropping, feel free to ask us.