when i crop photos in post production....

[Gato Moteado]

....unless i need an alternate aspect ratio, i keep it the same as the 3:2 or 4:3 ratio of the sensor in the camera i used. then i find i always need to recrop to fit a 5:4 aspect ratio pre-cut mat (like 8x10) before printing. i'm interested to hear what everyone else does regarding image management and processing if you do a lot of printing:

do you:
1. crop with the aspect ratio of the camera's sensor and then recrop before printing (like i do)?
2. crop and compose with a 5:4 aspect ratio the first time so the image will be print ready?

one thing i'm considering is just cropping the way i have been (3:2) and then printing as is (the prints will have a white band across the top and bottom) and then have 3:2 custom mats cut for printing and framing.

[flamin lib]

1. As you know I shoot 4/3 which is very close to the aspect ratio of

popular standard frame sizes.

For stuff I shoot in the studio where I have full control of what is in the frame I pretty much fill the frame and print to any standard size knowing that any crop loss will be minimal.

Shooting 'in the wild' I make my best shot and crop to best advantage maintaining 4/3 aspect ratio.

For web publishing I just crop to what looks like the best advantage in composition.

That said I tend to crop too tight in camera to leave much room for cropping. A hold over from the 35mm film days when we needed every cm2 for IQ past 8x10.

[Major Nikon]

2. I never crop more than once if then

Personally I don't use 5:4 all that often for a couple of reasons. For one thing when you start filling your walls with 5:4 formatted images, it seems a bit repetitive and boring. For another I like to crop based on what suits the image best. If you want to use an off-the-shelf frame that has a 5:4 format, you can still use a custom mat which aren't all that expensive to acquire.

You can always manually crop a 3:2 ratio to 5:4 by simply using a standard 5:4 mat. You can also manually crop standard sizes from your printer with a custom mat. For instance, an 8x10 print can go on a 8x8 mat provided the frame is large enough to accommodate the overlap.

[Nitram]

3. I also crop images to what I think is the most artistic frame for the image. A mat takes care of

any differences with "standard" frames.

[Gato Moteado]

4. yes, i wasn't even thinking about alternative sized frames....

...but rather custom cut mats for 3:2 prints to go into the standard 5:4 frames.

[ManiacJoe]

5. When cropping images for expected prints,

I tend to crop the images to 5x7 ratio. This makes for an easy conversion to 4x6 ratio and a less difficult conversion to 8x10.

Leaving the image at the 2:3 (4x6) ratio makes for a more difficult conversion to 8x10.

I always price the 8x10 and 8x12 prints at the same cost so that the clients might be nudged to the better 8x12 (4x6) cropping.

Sometimes I end up creating a separate 8x10 crop of the image when the conversion from 5x7 does not work well.

[Gato Moteado]

6. interesting....

....what kind of photography work are you doing professionally?

[ManiacJoe]

7. I do sports photography as a hobby.

Make a little money at it but nothing to brag about.

Mostly beach volleyball and high school volleyball. Volleyball being a vertical sport, most of the images are portrait orientation.

[Gato Moteado]

8. cool

sports, or anything with action, is challenging to photograph.

[Livbaker]

9. I say

crop what best suits the photo (or really, however you want, any size!). In my opinion, there doesn't need to be a set rule for this, or in photography in general. You can always cut your own custom mat, or go the more contemporary route, and don't use a mat at all and go straight to custom framing.