After spending the day photographing your child, family event, or your favorite scene, you find the perfect image you want to print. You go to your favorite frame store and find a beautiful frame for the photo. The frame matches your decor perfectly or it has a great saying on it. Immediately, you know exactly where to hang the photo. However, when you attempt to print it as an 8x10 or 16x20, you notice that the image doesn't fit in the crop line for an 8x10 or 16x20. Why? Without getting too technical, images out of the camera will fit 4x6, 8x12, 16x24, etc perfectly. In the past, images would print as 4x5, 8x10, 16x20, etc.
What should/can you do to get the image to fit in the 8x10? This is what I do. First, if I didn't shoot the frame loose (with plenty of room around the subject to crop as an 8x10) and I do not want to cut off any part of the image, I crop the image in post production. One method that I do is to create a digital mat in either Photoshop
, or Fotofusion
. Normally, I use Fotofusion (Extreme) and utilize templates I built previously and modify for the current image. Within Fotofusion
, I create a black canvas set to either 8x10 or 10x8 and use the tools within the software to mat the image. After creating the canvas, bring the image onto the canvas and adjust accordingly to the size of the mat you want. In this image, I used 3/4 in on the top and both sides with 1.25 inches on the bottom to include some text. By using post production software such as Photoshop, Fotofusion, or Photoshop Elements,
you maintain control of the cropping and type of mat you would like for your image. There are many plugins and templates available for all three of these products but I will reserve discussing them for a future post.This method is an easy way to get nice looking matting for your images and have them still fit in your standard frames. By using post production software, you can create many types of matting and designs. In the first example, the layout is very simple. In the second example, I have more than one image and added more text. Software enables the photographer to design many interesting creative images. Regardless if you are just starting or an a seasoned photographer, there are many creative options for today's photographers.
Images and designs by Pittsburgh Wedding Photographer Frank Kendralla
www.kendrallaphotography.com
