Senior Portraits: Printing

[Rodger]

Hi all.


Got a question about printing if you've got time.


I have the opportunity to shoot some senior portraits for some friends this coming fall (first paid gig!). Since it's for pay, I want the quality to be the best it can be. I'm not too worried about the shoots, but the printing process has me scared to death. Last time I ordered prints, I was left cropping my pictures online at Sams Club's website. I really want to avoid that situation again.


I think I'll be using Adorama for prints. To avoid the "online crop" scenario I mentioned earlier, what do I do? Do I need to make every file a common DPP (DPI?) and then use preset crop settings that match the size I would be getting prints?


For instance, say I want "jpeg 1" to be an 8x10. Would I change the DPP (DPI?) size to say 300, and then crop using an "8x10 @ 300 DPP (DPI?)" setting in photoshop?


If so, do I just frame loose on the actual shoot so that I can get the picture I want?





Thanks in advance,


Rodger

[Dallasphotog]

Adorama will do a good job for you. I've used some of the 16x20 Kodak Endura Metallic recently with pretty nice results.


You are correct about your composition needing to be a bit loose. If the final output may include 8x10's you need some margin on the left and right edges of the frame. There are actually focus screens that will put the crop lines in the viewfinder for you, but they aren't a neccesity if you leave yourself a little room. Some times, I don't want to mess with my original composition and I add elements to alter the ratio to 8x10 like a blackheader or border with "Senior 2010" lettered through it.


...and yes, you set photoshop's crop tool just as described. I usually add the dimensions to the file on saving, so I can easily remember how something is cropped (i.e. IMG_5000_8x10.jpg).

[Rodger]

Alright thanks!

[peety3]

Shoot loose, and I'd recommend doing cropping yourself before you send things off to the printer. There's a lot of creative license when it comes to cropping, and I'd think you want to exercise that control yourself.


Twice a year, we do a charity gig with 150+ teams and 2500+ walkers. We shoot pictures of the teams, take the memory cards to a crew on laptops with Picasa (we don't have time for anything fancier), select, tune, crop, straighten, export, and send to Walgreen's for a 5x7 of each team. As soon as the prints are ready, they're whisked back to the event site, where we put them in frames and hand them to the team captains before they're done with the walk. One of the biggest things we tell the photographers is to shoot super loose - between the cropping to 5x7 and the edges covered by the frame, it's too easy to lose people, and we don't have time to reshoot the teams.