Cropping

In the US photography and consumer world we have come to know several “standard” sizes for photographic prints; 4x6, 5x7, 8x10, 11x14, 16x20 and so on. While we have accepted these as “standard” we often consciously forget that these are not all “equal” in proportional dimension.

Most digital cameras have a sensor that produces an electronic image that is 2 units x 3 units. (I cannot say inches as the actual sensor dimensions are more like 19.1mm x 28.7mm (.75 in. x 1.13 in.) (For a Canon 1D) or 24mm x 36mm (.94 in. x 1.42 in.) (for a Kodak Pro 14n).) With an image of 2x3 coming from the camera, we can see that only the “standard” size of 4x6 is able to use the entire camera image, all others must be cropped in a way to produce the best possible photo for the desired size of print.

So what does that mean?

Quite simply it means that a photographer must take into account that you the consumer is likely going to want something printed that will fit in a standard size frame. They must allow for extra area around the subjects of the photograph in order to crop the image to any available "standard".