Digital Photography

Do your digital-photo prints sometimes appear to be missing part of the original scene? Maybe you snapped a portrait that looked perfect on your camera monitor, for example, but in the 4 x 6-inch print you ordered from your local photo lab, the top of the subject’s head is clipped off. What’s the deal?

The problem has to do with the proportions, or aspect ratio, of your originals and how they translate to standard print sizes.  A 4 x 6-inch print has an aspect ratio of 3:2 because it was originally designed for printing pictures taken on 35mm film negatives, which have a 3:2 aspect ratio. Some digital cameras, especially those of the digital SLR variety, also create 3:2 originals, so photos from those models fit perfectly on a 4 x 6-inch print. But for reasons that aren’t worth getting into, many digital cameras instead produce pictures that have a 4:3 aspect ratio, which means that the photo must be cropped to 3:2 proportions to fit on a 4 x 6-inch print. As an illustration, the image here is a 4:3 original; the red box shows how much of that original could fit on a 4 x 6 print. And whether you start with a 3:2 or 4:3 original, the issue of differing proportions arises if you want to make prints at other traditional sizes – 5 x 7, 8 x 10, and so on.

Long story short: When you’re composing your pictures, leave a good margin of background, or head room, around your subject, as I did for the example, so that you no matter what print size you choose, nothing important is cropped away.