Stock Camera Ratios

[Anotherusr]

Ok I tried to look this up a bit but I'm finding some conflicting information. A few questions here but they all are relevant to each other for me.

What's the best option to shoot on - Full, 3:4, 9:16, 1:1?

What option is best for 4 x 6 printed photos? I like my photo to take up the whole screen when looking at it but i also like to be able to print them out.

I also am curious which is best for when your planning on using the photo as a background and you want the ENTIRE photo viewable on the phone?

Last question, i have a 34" ultrawide monitor and am curious what setting is best for that?

 

[Gary02468]

The sensor's ratio is 3:4. If you select any other aspect ratio, it merely crops the image for you (as you can confirm by checking the resolution of the resulting photos). If you shoot at maximum resolution, you can always crop the photos later to match whatever viewing format you prefer.

 

[Mooncatt]

I agree with shooting at the full, native resolution. Especially if you don't have any specific plans for those photos. If you know a specific image will be used for something when taking the photo, then I would change the resolution/aspect ratio to match. That way you can insure you get it looking right in camera without cropping. There's been a few times I was too close to the subject. It looked great at full view, but I didn't leave enough space around the subject to crop for my phone's wallpaper. Switching to one of those aspect ratios prevents that.

 

[anon(7901790)]

None of the ratios that the stock camera uses will crop to 4x6 prints without losing some of the image.

The 4x6 print is a 2:3 ratio which is what 35mm film (and its derivatives 4x6, 8x12, 16x24, etc.) are based on.

You're best bet is to shoot with the native 3:4 ratio and then crop to 4x6 to make prints.

For your 34" ultrawide monitor, the "full" setting would work best. I BELIEVE that is 18.5:9(ish) which is fairly close to the aspect ratio of your monitor.

In ANY case, there will be some cropping of the image involved.

 

[Gary02468]

For your 34" ultrawide monitor, the "full" setting would work best. I BELIEVE that is 18.5:9(ish) which is fairly close to the aspect ratio of your monitor.

The "full" setting has the same aspect ratio as the phone's full screen, which is 9:19.

 

[anon(7901790)]

The "full" setting has the same aspect ratio as the phone's full screen, which is 9:19.

So like I said, 18.5:9(ish). Lol

 

[Anotherusr]

Thank you all for your input.

None of the ratios that the stock camera uses will crop to 4x6 prints without losing some of the image.

The 4x6 print is a 2:3 ratio which is what 35mm film (and its derivatives 4x6, 8x12, 16x24, etc.) are based on.

You're best bet is to shoot with the native 3:4 ratio and then crop to 4x6 to make prints.

For your 34" ultrawide monitor, the "full" setting would work best. I BELIEVE that is 18.5:9(ish) which is fairly close to the aspect ratio of your monitor.

In ANY case, there will be some cropping of the image involved.

Thank you, what's the resolution on the full mode vs the 4:3? Am I loosing a lot on the full? I'll try and take more photos on 4:3 , will those still fill the screen as a background on the phone ? I know mooncat was saying the full was too much for our phones background.

 

[anon(7901790)]

Thank you all for your input.



Thank you, what's the resolution on the full mode vs the 4:3? Am I loosing a lot on the full? I'll try and take more photos on 4:3 , will those still fill the screen as a background on the phone ? I know mooncat was saying the full was too much for our phones background.

I believe the 4:3 is using the full resolution of 16MP camera. I'm not sure though. Even if it is the 12MP camera, that is PLENTY of resolution to make 4x6 prints.

Hell, that's plenty of resolution for a 16x24 inch print.

I was making 13x19 inch prints from my 6MP Digital Rebel years ago.

 

[Gary02468]

what's the resolution on the full mode vs the 4:3? Am I [losing] a lot on the full?

The ratio of resolutions is easy to calculate from the aspect ratios. But the easiest thing to do is just take a photo in each aspect ratio and then look at the photos' resolutions.

I'll try and take more photos on 4:3[. W]ill those still fill the screen as a background on the phone ?

The sensor's resolution exceeds the phone screen's resolution in both dimensions. So yes, after the 4:3 image is cropped, it will fill the screen.

 

[Mooncatt]

Thank you, what's the resolution on the full mode vs the 4:3? Am I loosing a lot on the full? I'll try and take more photos on 4:3 , will those still fill the screen as a background on the phone ? I know mooncat was saying the full was too much for our phones background.

I think you misunderstood me. What a lot of people to is try to get up close and fill as much of the photo with the subject as possible. If you then try to crop that to fit the phone screen, it's likely you'll lose some of the subject you want. If you shoot it at your screen's ratio to begin with, you'll notice it immediately before taking the shot and can back up to get what you want. With the full resolution at 4:3, you just need to keep that in mind and leave extra space around your subject when taking the photo so you can crop later.

 

[EMGSM]

I like the way Full looks but I want the highest resolution so I stick with 3:4.

 

[Anotherusr]

Ok so my resolution is good, perfect. 4:3, back up a little more so I have room to crop later, got it.

Ok I'm still a little confused on so earlier I printed a 4x6 photo from a "full" pic I took on Sunday it came out cropped (about a quarter of a inch on the top and bottom was white paper. Would the 4:3 have filled that space and some of the pic have had to be cropped off rather than it being cropped from the start , I might be using the word cropped wrong in the last sentence so pardon me if I am. I want a full photo on the piece of paper, no white space.

 

[Gary02468]

[]I'm still a little confused[. E]arlier I printed a 4x6 photo from a "full" pic I took on Sunday[. I]t came out cropped (about a quarter of a inch on the top and bottom was white paper.

That's not cropped. Going from the sensor (4:3) to "full" (19:9) cropped off the top and bottom of the image. But the whole 19:9 image (what you saw on the screen when you took the photo) was then placed in the 6:4 rectangle without further cropping, which left blank space at the top and bottom.

Alternatively, you could have cropped the 19:9 image further, leaving out a portion on the left and right, in order to fill the 6:4 rectangle without blank space.

Would the 4:3 have filled that space and some of the pic have had to be cropped off rather than it being cropped from the start[?] I might be using the word cropped wrong in the last sentence

No, that's correctly described as cropping. Cropping means chopping off part of the image.

Anytime you move from one aspect ratio to another, you either have to crop the original image or else leave blank bars (either horizontally or vertically) in the new image. If you take a 4:3 image and print it in 6:4 format, you can either fill the whole 6:4 picture by cropping some from the top and bottom, or else you can refrain from cropping and leave blank bars at the left and right.

 

[Anotherusr]

That's not cropped. Going from the sensor (4:3) to "full" (19:9) cropped off the top and bottom of the image. But the whole 19:9 image (what you saw on the screen when you took the photo) was then placed in the 6:4 rectangle without further cropping, which left blank space at the top and bottom.

Alternatively, you could have cropped the 19:9 image further, leaving out a portion on the left and right, in order to fill the 6:4 rectangle without blank space.


No, that's correctly described as cropping. Cropping means chopping off part of the image.

Anytime you move from one aspect ratio to another, you either have to crop the original image or else leave blank bars (either horizontally or vertically) in the new image. If you take a 4:3 image and print it in 6:4 format, you can either fill the whole 6:4 picture by cropping some from the top and bottom, or else you can refrain from cropping and leave blank bars at the left and right.

Ah , ok so the 4x6 will print out with blank space on the sides using 4:3 vs the top and bottom that the "full" 19:9 image left me with BUT the 4:3 leaves me with area to further crop and fill the photo paper with? Will I make this selection within the print screen on the phone to crop to fill the screen? I printed the picture right from the gallery. Thank you for all your help this will save me a ton of headaches in the future.

 

[Gary02468]

Ah , ok so the 4x6 will print out with blank space on the sides using 4:3 [...] BUT the 4:3 leaves me with area to further crop and fill the photo paper with?

I'm not sure what you mean by "further" crop. At the point where you see the blank bars in the 6:4 format, the original 4:3 image hasn't been cropped at all yet.

I'm also not sure what you mean by "leaves me with area" to crop and fill the photo paper. Any rectangle, regardless of its dimensions, can be cropped into the same aspect ratio as any other rectangle. The more similar the aspect ratios, the less you have to crop away.

Will I make this selection within the print screen on the phone to crop to fill the screen?

Dunno, it depends on what options that software has.

 

[Mooncatt]

Ah , ok so the 4x6 will print out with blank space on the sides using 4:3 vs the top and bottom that the "full" 19:9 image left me with BUT the 4:3 leaves me with area to further crop and fill the photo paper with? Will I make this selection within the print screen on the phone to crop to fill the screen? I printed the picture right from the gallery. Thank you for all your help this will save me a ton of headaches in the future.

Give this article a read and see if it helps you visualize cropping better. If not, I'll try to make up some example images that are more directly related to your planned uses (got a busy few days ahead of me).

https://www.photoshopactions.com/bl...mages-for-print-aspect-ratio-print-dimensions

 

[Rukbat]

Whether aspect ratio A crops or leaves blank spaces when converted to aspect ratio B depends on you if you use a good photo editor. You can either crop or leave spaces.

Another important thing to remember, if you want the best resolution, is to save in Raw format, not as a .jpg file - that uses lossy compression - you lose resolution just by saving as .jpg.

If you can work on a PC, use Paint.net or GIMP to crop or cut - you can save the picture in any aspect ratio you like, either cutting things off or leaving spaces, and in any file format you like. (Work on a copy - never work on the original.)

 

[toenail_flicker]

Another important thing to remember, if you want the best resolution, is to save in Raw format, not as a .jpg file - that uses lossy compression - you lose resolution just by saving as .jpg.

If you can work on a PC, use Paint.net or GIMP to crop or cut - you can save the picture in any aspect ratio you like, either cutting things off or leaving spaces, and in any file format you like. (Work on a copy - never work on the original.)

+1 100% on all. I use LR - lightroom

 

[anon(7901790)]

I would suggest not printing from your phone directly. I recommend copying the photos to your laptop/desktop and crop the image in an image editor app and then use the print utility provided by your printer manufacturer.

If you are going to use a print service like Walmart, then crop the images like I said, then put them on a thumb drive or CD and when you print from a kiosk, it should print the size you want without any issues.

Like others have said, you're going to lose some areas around the edge of the image, so compose the shot with enough room to spare when you crop it you have the image you want.

I know that sounds complicated, but it will give you the best results.

There are some good sources that you can Google that can explain how to compose and crop images for printing.

 

[Mooncatt]

Another important thing to remember, if you want the best resolution, is to save in Raw format, not as a .jpg file - that uses lossy compression - you lose resolution just by saving as .jpg.

You don't lose resolution with jpegs. What you lose is some of the fine details when it comes to dynamic range, effectiveness of noise reduction, and color saturation. This limits how effectively you can edit a photo (if you choose to).

RAW editing allows for absolute control over those details, because the individual pixels still have all the info from the sensor. One of the better known examples is the recovery of blown out highlights. With a blown out highlight in a jpeg, you get pure white due to the data compression. That same image in its RAW format could still have details, and turning down the highlights allow those details to remain visible. The downside to all this is RAW files are not viewable on most devices and you need a RAW editor to see them. You have to edit them because the sensor data is often dull, then save as a traditional image format(jpeg, png, tiff, etc).

You can find RAW editors for android. Snapseed can do it, and there's also Photoshop Express for free.

To the OP, just keep in mind that this has zero the do with original topic of cropping photos. It's good info to know in case you want to explore image editing, but isn't necessary to know for basic cropping. Depending on how deep into the weeds you want to get into, the choice of doing the edits on your phone or from a computer can get rather muddled. A crop on your phone and the same crop on the computer will look identical in the end.

If you do move on to editing image details, then you may want to consider things like monitor color calibration. Depending on the phone and monitors you have available, the phone may actually be more accurate than a monitor (a situation I'm in compared to my laptop). Color accuracy of the monitor determines how close the final print looks to what you wanted. If you have a red image on an accurate screen, it'll look just as red when printed. If the screen is out of calibration, what looks red on the screen could come out pink on the printer because you edit based on the screen image and not actual image data (unless you can read binary like Matrix code). There's ways to match your monitor to the printer to account for these differences, but I don't think you can do so on a phone.