Paterson Photography Ltd.

I have been asked this question many times over the past week, month, years even.  I covered this off once before but thought that I should do it once more as the questions keep coming.

The question “why is it when I get a 5×7, 8×10, 11×14 or 16×20 print made of my digital file I have some of the image cut off”?

The answer ~ a digital camera sensor is NOT the same proportions as the prints mentioned above ( a little history is that the sizes above where used for photographers that shot 645 medium format ~ these sizes fit this format perfectly).  Most sensors are proportioned to 4×6, 8×12, 11×16, 12×18,  16×24 ~ only these sizes will give you the full image file and you will not have to crop off any of your image.  The cropping can be a good thing, it can allow you to get closer to the subject and eliminate “extra” parts of the picture.  For some pictures it is a killer,  imagine a picture of a large family and the people are from one edge of the image to the other.  Then the client asks for a 16×20.  Well you now have to choose who in the family that you are going to cut out, or do a lot of editing to add sky or foreground to the image.

Full frame image with no room to crop

Crop lines showing a 16x20 crop, notice part of subject will be cropped off.

So what should you do?  When shooting images imagine that you have crop lines in your viewfinder (or do like many did in years past and draw the crop lines in – if you so dare or are crazy enough to try).  Leave space around your images for the cropping to the common sizes.  If you want to do something artistic, like a 24″x8″ inch print make sure that you let your client know that is what you did so when they order they won’t ask for a 8×10 from that print.

If you do mess up and crop too tight for the print size, add some space using Photoshop. If you are unsure of how to do this give me a call and I would be happy to show you.

Had a chance to go through the lower park of BC in the last two weeks looking for locations to take tours and groups to, found some great locations.   Here are some pictures from this trip.

The Ferry at Kootenay Bay BC

Hedley Mine

Hedley Mine #2

Turtle

Jelly Fish

Jelly Fish 2

Jelly Fish 3

Portuea Cove

Just saw the itineraries for some of the adventures, expeditions and trips that are coming up that I have been asked to accompany ~ WOW!!  These trips have everything, great locations, food, accommodations, meals and photography.

First trip is Banff, Yoho, Jasper – stops at Johnson Canyon, Ice fields (Snow coach tour) and a lot more

Next is Calgary for Christmas – Heritage park and ZOO lights!

Then we have individual trips to Yellowstone, Yosemite, Sedona Arizona and a sea kayaking trip to Vancouver Island.

If you, or anyone you know, are interested stay tuned to our teaching website as they are confirmed they will be posted there.  These courses are perfect for all levels of photographers, even just for the occasional shooter or someone that wants to travel to some great locations to get pictures.

Stay tuned for some wonderful news on photography adventures coming up in the near future.  As a little hint we are working on four adventures for this fall and spring that will include flights, accommodations, meals, ground transportation and some GREAT photography locations.  The first four look like they will be 1 – Banff & Jasper, 2 – Napa & Yosemite, 3 – Vancouver sea kayaking, rain forest photography and whale watching & photography and finally 4 – Sedona Arizona for some wonderful late winter desert photography.

As well in the longer term we are looking at some possible locations such as Patagonia, South America, Tanzania, Australia and the Galapagos Islands.

Hopefully we will have an announcement in a couple of weeks!

Thought that I would share some images from the Waterton course this past weekend.  It was a great time, a little cool and some snow (I love the spring snow).  On Friday it was so hot you could hear spring coming as the snow melted and the plants, trees and flowers were growing.  Saturday I think everything went back into winter mode for the day.  The GREAT thing about it was that it made for some fantastic waterfall pictures as the diffused light was amazing.

Looking forward to next months course in Waterton.

Snow at Cameron Lake on Summit Trail Head

Pond at Cameron Lake

Road to Cameron Lake

Red Rock Canyon

Beaver Pond on Red Rock Parkway

Cameron Falls

Deer

Waterton Tree through window

Waterton tree in snow