Crop or aspect ratio; how important is it?

[bajadreamer]

I usually try to stay with one of the "traditional" aspect ratios when I save my master copies of my processed images. Not sure why as I rarely print; most of my images are displayed either on a computer monitor or a dedicated TV I have at home in my den. Especially with the TV, unless the image is at 16:9, the image does not fill the screen. This shot of a Red Kite had to be cropped at a non traditional aspect. I clipped the bird's right (viewer's left) wing and had to replace the wing tip. To do so I had to add canvas on the left side. Because of the pose and the wing span, I could not (at least not satisfactorily to me) get this to work in a 5:4 or 3:2 ratio. What are your thoughts? How important is the aspect ratio to you? I am thinking of having this printed on canvas as a "panorama type" scene.

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[DRwyoming]

How important is the aspect ratio to you?

Not very, especially for non-print uses. I do try to crop to the historically common aspect ratios but that's as much as anything to support inexpensive printing. For web use, especially website banners I've created some very unusual aspect ratios but for just sharing images in electronic format it really comes down to the image and your personal sense of what looks good and makes sense for the subject matter.

In situations like the image above (great image BTW!) some form of panorama crop makes a lot of sense. I tend to try to fit those into 16:9 or 16:10 formats and might even do more canvas stretching to achieve that but again that's just to keep printing costs down and if I won't print the image then I just crop to what looks good to me.

 

[bleirer]

What I save as the main photo is the layered Photoshop file with the "delete cropped pixels" not checked, just in case I change my mind. But I'll usually run through the common ratios between 1:1 and 2:1 just to see if it evokes an idea. At least I'll check 3:2, 4:3, 5:4. But I think you are right that the ratio should fit the image and your choice certainly does.

Bay photo will do custom size canvas gallery wraps, as I imagine others do, so you are good to go.

Nice job on the wingtip and the fill!

 

[bajadreamer]

Not very, especially for non-print uses. I do try to crop to the historically common aspect ratios but that's as much as anything to support inexpensive printing. For web use, especially website banners I've created some very unusual aspect ratios but for just sharing images in electronic format it really comes down to the image and your personal sense of what looks good and makes sense for the subject matter.

In situations like the image above (great image BTW!) some form of panorama crop makes a lot of sense. I tend to try to fit those into 16:9 or 16:10 formats and might even do more canvas stretching to achieve that but again that's just to keep printing costs down and if I won't print the image then I just crop to what looks good to me.

Thank you for your thoughts. I tend to get into a "habit" and use the same ratios repeatedly when I push the C key for crop in PS. Need to be more flexible.

 

[bajadreamer]

What I save as the main photo is the layered Photoshop file with the "delete cropped pixels" not checked, just in case I change my mind. But I'll usually run through the common ratios between 1:1 and 2:1 just to see if it evokes an idea. At least I'll check 3:2, 4:3, 5:4. But I think you are right that the ratio should fit the image and your choice certainly does.

Bay photo will do custom size canvas gallery wraps, as I imagine others do, so you are good to go.

Nice job on the wingtip and the fill!

Thank you. I appreciate the info about Bay Photo. I have used them in the past and will inquire about this image.

 

[bleirer]

Thank you. I appreciate the info about Bay Photo. I have used them in the past and will inquire about this image.

They have 2 versions, the one I like is the image printed with 'fine art' pigments directly on the canvas, the other is a paper photo adhered under pressure to the underlying canvas. I've not done a head to head comparison, just have a bias for the pigments.