Cropping/Printing question

[SKMO]

I am not much of a photographer so excuse me if I do not use the correct terms.

If I have a digital photo that I crop and it does not end up in the original height to width ratio and I want to have it commercially printed, what usually happens?

For example I just want to zoom in and crop a pic of a long skinny fish. Will the print come out with the whole fish represented with a white or black zone above/below the fish. Or will I get a print of a chopped off fish as they expand the thing to the correct dimensions.

Not sure if I have asked this to where anyone can understand my question.

I have uploaded some digitals to Wal-Mart for printing and it seems to happen both ways.

Anyway if anyone could offer suggestions about cropping/trimming photos for printing it would be appreciated.

Tight Lines - SKMO

[Gary Lange]

What you give them to print is what you will get back. If you crop a photo then that photo is going to be that size forever cause you can't go back once you save it. The photo will turn out to be the long skinny fish you sent them to print.

[Thom]

I don't know what camera you are using but on my Sony I can crop the picutre right in the camera. If you go into the view selection on the camera and then you can use the zoom feature to enlarge the picture then move it up or down left or right then retake the photo from the view that you see. It saves both the original pic and the cropped one. Usually the step by step instructions are in the manual. I take a lot of pics through my spotting scope of birds and I usually have to crop them to get them centered.

You don't have to lose the original photo when you crop it outside the camera either. Just remember to copy and paste the original and give it a name such as fish1.jpg and fish2.jpg. Most software lets you do this within the program. just remember to do it before you save any changes such as croping or changing contrast.

[LostMyWife]

SKMO

I am not an expet by any means, but I believe that you can choose "maintain ratio" when you crop. Doing so in some programs resizes the pic so that it is the correct size for the print.

Give it a try.