Custom Cropping

[jenkins]

<p>If you select a custom crop does it become a real problem further down the line when it comes to printing and framing it?</p>

<p>I quite often find I like the 9 x 16 for landscapes but as I do little printing of my own work I wonder what the repercussions are further down the line?</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

[Matt Laur]

<p>Just don't crop anything until the last step of your workflow (perhaps second-to-last to re-sampling to the proper size). Leave yourself an un-cropped version, or work with a non-destructive editor that doesn't actually throw out any image data. This makes crop decisions repercussion-less.<br /><br />I'm usually not too worried anyway, as I cut all my own mats and do my own framing. Though it's nice to be able to use standard-sized/aspect-ratio frames.</p>

[jenkins]

<p>Matt so is it better to create a virtual copy in Lightroom then? One problem with leaving the cropping right until the end is say that if you have a sky that has been processed with vignettes and other treatment, it all gets cut off when you do this right at the end?</p>

[phule]

<p>[[it all gets cut off when you do this right at the end?]]</p>

<p>If all the processing has been done in Lightroom, and you're running 3.x, no.</p>

 

[dbcooper]

<p>Little kids' creativity gets stifled the first time someone forces them to color inside the lines, and on it goes from there. I wouldn't worry about the aspect ratio...just make the finished image look right to you and let the dimensions fall where they will. Might be a little more trouble to mat or frame, but unless you're constrained by a mag format, etc., so what? IMO it's worth any bother to get the image looking right.</p>

[dbcooper]

<p>Just to show what LR3 can do, here's an example of LR3.x following post-crop vignetting. I vignetted it <em>then</em> cropped it, and LR adjusted the vignetting to suit the crop. Hope you don't mind, Simon.</p><div></div>

[jenkins]

<p>What did you do to it - Give it an acid trip?</p>

[hannah_defran]

<p>If you are going to sell to a wide audience, it will be a problem because people will have trouble finding standard mats and frames at their local craft store, and not everybody can spend $200+ on a custom frame. <br>

I also always create a virtual copy of everything in LR before I edit them. You can always reset it, but it's easier to simply have a duplicate to begin with.</p>

[tom_mann1]

<p>[Tangential comment]: I know it's Simon's shot, but, hey, I rather like the colors. I'm sure it might be too over-the-top for most folks (including potential customers), but I'm weird. </p>

<p>;-)</p>

<p>Tom M</p>

[dbcooper]

<blockquote>

<p>What did you do to it - Give it an acid trip?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>No, might need to recal my monitor, though. If that doesn't work, I'll get the tap water checked... :)</p>

 

[jenkins]

<p>Tom I have been meaning take that picture down for months lol</p>

<p>Not easy bracketing 5 exposures on sand manually and it shows, now DB has cooked it *weeps*</p>

<p>D.B that was my point that if you leave the cropping till the end, you do lose image if you then resize it. I take on board what you said Rob and Hannah about Lightroom and duplicate copies, I will do this in the future.</p>

[dbcooper]

<p>How's this...better? J/K</p>

<p>BRB - some men in white coats are at the door...</p><div></div>

[tom_mann1]

<p>Simon, DB -- LOL!</p>

<p>WRT your original question, I agree with Hanna's comment. It depends on your customers, but lots of them will be put off if they don't buy a framed version from you and they then realize that they can't use an off-the-shelf frame / matt. </p>

<p>Tom</p>

[jenkins]

<p><strong>BRB - some men in white coats are at the door...</strong></p>

<p>Oh good the hitmen are right on time.</p>

<p>Tom I am only talking about personal work, it's only now and then I want to use a custom crop and usually landscapes/seascapes.</p>

[dbcooper]

<p>I knew I shouldn't have tried to make the pic pop more the first time through, and the vignetting was intentionally heavy-handed for illustrative purposes. Combing them was a solid fail, especially since I tried some other twiddling I shouldn't have done quickly with a 700 pixel wide jpg that'd been 'saved-as' a time or two,(or at all). Please don't give up on LR's post-crop vignetting on account of me - it can be re-adjusted after the crop with the sliders with no ill effects (assuming you're not as ham-handed as I am tonight). I really like the post-crop workflow continuity of that feature in LR3. It's saved me from at least a couple of do-overs, and I can play with the 'look' at any point in post.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>Oh good the hitmen are right on time.</p>

</blockquote>

<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swQi4CAzmrA">Who can it be</a> knocking at my door? Make no sound - tiptoe across the floor...</p>

[jenkins]

<p>D.B I don't like Lightroom's vignettes or the adjustment brush, I tend to use that programme for organising or if I have a lot of photos to process, otherwise I usually prefer Photoshop.</p>

[dbcooper]

<p>Ah...I didn't realize that, Simon. I thought you had a preference for LR. Now I know.</p>