Cropping question.............what size?

<p>In my post processing, when I crop an image, I routinely use the 4 X 6 landscape or portrait crop option. That's because if Iprint a photo is it usually a family pic and 4 X 6 is a convenient size.<br>

I haven't been printing larger sizes but my wife is encouraging me to print out larger sizes of my<br>

landscape and animal photos so she can frame and hang them.<br>

I genarally use Nikon Picture Project for PP and occasionally use Windows Photoviewer for editing and/or cropping.<br>

Is there a "common" crop size in general use?<br>

If I want to start printing some of my photo's, should I start using using 8 X 10 landscape or portrait or does it matter if I want to later print out an 8 X 10 or larger size?<br>

There is also a "custom" crop mode but I fear that will limit usability for printing when I use one of the standard formats.4 x 6, 8 X 10, 11 x 14, etc.<br>

Any guidance would be appreciated.<br>

Thanks.......Mel</p>

<p>I keep my uncropped (but edited and "leveled") original, then I crop for whatever size I print by making a copy. That way, if I print a little 4 x 6 or 5 x 7 and then want to print larger, I go back to the original and resize from there.</p>

<p>I second Peter<br>

I too keep my uncropped then I crop to whatever size I need them to be<br>

make sure to keep the original.</p>

<p>The 4 x 6 is a pretty good way to go because, that's the same as a 8 x 12. So later if you want to print a 8 x 10, you'll just need to lop off 2 inches from the long side. But you need to make sure you leave enough space on the long end of your 4 x 6 crop so that if you do at some point want to print an 8 x 10, the 2 inches you cut off would not be a key part of the picture.<br>

The way I sometimes do it is when you are doing your cropping, first do the 4 x 6 crop, then change it to 8 x 10 to see what it would like like and make sure the 2 inches wont be cutting out something important in the picture.<br>

Works similarly for the 5 x 7 size, which is in between the 4 x 6 and 8 x 10 ratio.<br>

Otherwise the other advice was good - just keep the original, and save the cropped versions as different names.</p>

<p>Always keep the original and disk drives are so cheap, I also tend to save the smaller crops. That way I don't have to go through that "chore" again of cropping, sizing, etc.. And, for prints with a big Impact, you may want to consider A4 Paper (13 by 19 ) I believe. Most of today's digital cameras with at least 8 megapixels can re-size up to A4 size with really nice prints.<br>

Good luck,<br>

michael.</p>

<p>With Capture NX2 you dont modify the original file. You can recall the original scene with a few keystrokes. Also any photo that is cropped can be automatically resized to 8x10.</p>

<p>i always keep a folder/file of the originals (no editing). then i copy the folder and start editing from zero from that "copy" folder. this is quite necessary especially if you primarily deal with jpegs and the editing software you mentioned.</p>

<p>and if your pictures are dear to you, make it a habit to store copies of both originals and edited copies in external hard drives or similar storage media. i have mine on dvd and external hard drive.</p>

<p>Mel, here are a couple of thoughts on your question, and firt not to correct you but hwat you are really addressing is the image size. <br>

IMHO, I would look and using a better program that picture project, the standard camera software. I found the manufacturers mostly cumbersome and unable to do what I would like it to do. I use two programs for editing my images, Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop CS4. I also use Adobe Bridge to import my inmages from my media cards, it will process your images to the typ of file format you want to use.<br>

I typically will import all of my images from RAW to DNG(Digital Negative File Format) This way you can make any type of adjustment you want, not have the large file format of RAW, whick will exhaust you PC hard Drive faster than a speeding bullet, and you can put the data on a CD and carefully lable and store it for later use.<br>

I have found that most people like 11X14 or 16X20 for most nature/landscapes. Sometimes bigger for closeup images where you can see the eyes of a bee in detail. <br>

Change your image size maintaining the PPI, If you crop you are removing part of the image the takes away from what you were capturing. Don't be limited by standard sizes. Take an image and print it in a 16x16.<br>

Remeber the prints you put on your wall respesents your artistic persona, be picky and don't settle for less that what is the real image you saw when you pressed the shutter release. So a standard size may not be the best way. <br>

One last thing that I offer, I am not sure where you live, but look around town for a good professional Photo Printer. That not that expensive if you print on Luster papers, they only get expensive if you start printing on art papers an such. Whick leads me to the final thought, unless you have a mulit-ink printer like the epson 4000 let someone else do the print of larger images for you. If you have a printer like the 2800 enjoy your work to the fullest in the smaller sizes. Excuse the typos too</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Thanks for all the great suggestions folks, I really appreciate it.<br>

Looks like at the very least I need to start keeping an original of my "keepers", which I don't currently do. That way I can resize/re-edit as needed in the future.</p>