cropping etc

[fullchat]

l have been busy cropping pictures to get the detail l want l'm doing this with hp photosmart premier. My question is ....is this the right way as then image siaze is sometning like 3000 x 2000 ish depending on how l crop. Now when l crop l never have the same size image...... is that wrong. When l have posted images here l have had to do it at 800 x 500ish. l have a web site through fotopic and have noticed some of the bigger prints l've got on there are "not sufficient quality for printing". Should all images put on to any web sites be 800 x ??? and lastly should l resize trhen crop or crop then resize? Also l always thought the more pixels the better the picture or is that me getting it all wrong? suggestions please

[Kev M]

You should really have two files when you've got a website, one for the website picture and one for printing. Crop the image as you want to (you will lose pixels every time you crop) but don't re-size it because you want to retain as much information as possible (unless you've cropped it to death and need to upsize the image), then save it. This will be your printing file. Now re-size your image to 800 pixels using the crop tool or whatever re-size function you have and then save it as a seperate file name and that is you web version.

[fullchat]

Sorry to be ignorant but the site l've got is a fotopic site and they print the photos so does the same rule apply

[Kev M]

Maybe not but I'm not sure how photopic works. Do you have to re-size to 800 pixels before uploading to it or do you upload the fullsize file and it gives you an 800pixel preview?

[AdWright]

upload the full size pics to your fotopic account. Then you can print them etc. I believe that they (like photobox) automatically create smaller versions for your gallery?

[fullchat]

l dont resize to 800 pixels l upload the full image which obviously takes longer to do. What gives me a little concern is l had fotopic print me a couple of large size photos to see their quality and the 12 x 10 l think it was seemed a bit like a widescreen tv shot with larger top and bottom borders. l would like to sell on fotopic but obviously only if the photos are going to come out the right size

[Janice]

Obviously your photo was the wrong ratio for 12X10. You have to make sure the originally uploaded photo they are printing from is the same aspect ratio or they will have to chop edges off or you will get white bits.

[fullchat]

How would l do that

[Janice]

If you use photoshop..... open the crop tool in the left hand toolbar and make a new preset of 12X10 or something and it will make your crop the correct ratio for that size.

[fullchat]

thanks l'll give it a go