Printing digital photos problem - bits of photo missing

JustAnotherSaver

I went in to boots today to print off a number of photos. Stuck the CD in, hit the print for the 6x4 size, the machine spat them out, i paid & came home.

Only once i'd got home & i started going through them did i realise many didn't 'fit'. Bits of the tops & bottoms were missing.

I (wrongly obviously) thought the machine would take the image & scale it to fit a 6x4 print.

How do i get it so that the print doesn't miss any of the photo off?

Tigsteroonie

I don't know but I can sympathise - I tried the printing machines in our Asda three times before giving up, because they were cropping my photos. I gave them to the woman at the counter and refused to pay because of the issue.

mac.d

I've never used the machines but have just done some online at https://www.asda-photo.co.uk (or try https://www.bootsphoto.com).

I was mainly ordering other bits and pieces but did order a few prints and when I selected the size I wanted, then proceeded to the checkout, I was then given the option to fit & crop the photos. I've not had my order yet so can't say how they've turned out!

DigForVictory

The standalone machines at Asda can be a bit dubious - I find you get better quality & a cheaper price having them printed by the Asda staff, who do try to fit images to the paper etc & cooperate if you're not happy.

Phone the store, explain what's happened & plan to go in & talk to a human - my guess would be they'll reprint for you. The timing is unfortunate, but their customer service is usually pretty good.

JustAnotherSaver

Quizzical_Squirrel wrote: »

I'm thinking that maybe your camera is taking photos at a different aspect ratio.

If you want to print at 6x4, your photo needs to be taken/presented with a 3:2 aspect ratio.

Have a look in your settings and see how your aspect ratio is set.

If you want to keep your already set aspect ratio, then you need to print at a scale multiple appropriate for that ratio.
For example, if it's 5:7 then your print size would be 5x7 not 6x4

I read this later on actually.

Most of the photos were taken with an iPhone 6S with one being taken with a Samsung & the model being a ST200 / ST200F / ST201 / ST201F / ST205F according to the data.

How would i change them to 4:3?

The photos really need to be 6x4 size. This is part of an Xmas present & they were to go in to a frame which would be 6x4 size - various photos, so i can't afford to have them enlarged or shrunk from that.

I would've thought the machine could resize them to fit. For example if i resize the pictures using the program Infranview & resize based on percentage, then i don't lose any clarity or anything. Not obvious anyway.

Keep_pedalling

The only way to do this is to edit the photos before printing them. you will either have to crop them or add boarders to top and bottom for landscape images or to the sides for portrait mode.

JustAnotherSaver

Could I not just seize them to something with Infranview? Not sure what to resize them to but is that not possible?

Is a photo store likely to be able to solve this problem?

I can't retake the photos really. It's not an option. And if by cropping you mean removing sections of the photo then that's also not really possible without ruining the photo. Resizing would be an option as it'd still leave the body of the picture in there but it's whether simple resizing would work.

Nilrem

Try a proper print shop if you've got one near you, as they tend to be far better equipped to do non standard/less common aspect ratios as they have the space (and demand) for it, whilst the local Supermarket instore print facility is pretty much lowest common denominator due to the space and cost of having the equipment (and materials) on site for less commonly required sizes.

Failing that given the time constraints try and get the pictures printed at somewhere like Boots* at a size that is bigger than the ratio of the photo, but ask the staff to keep it uncropped, they should at a guess be able to do that by telling the printer to "shrink to fit", which basically instructs the printer to size the image so it fits on the paper without cropping anything (it'll mean there will be some white edging where the paper is bigger in one dimension than the photo).
You can't really adjust the image in something like irfanview before it goes to the printer unless you know the ratio of the paper they'll be using as you would need to create a new blank image in the right ratio for the paper, big enough to take the image without losing details, then copy the image onto it and save it at a high enough quality you don't lose any detail (it's really better to leave it to the printers if they can tell it to shrink to fit).
Sorry if that's not terribly clear, it's pretty late.

*I'm not sure if it's still the case, but I seem to remember that they used to have more experienced staff/better equipment in a lot of their stores than most of the supermarkets that offered similar services (lower staff turn over, and it being a bigger part of the business), but it's been years since I used them.

wongataa

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

Could I not just seize them to something with Infranview? Not sure what to resize them to but is that not possible?

Is a photo store likely to be able to solve this problem?

I can't retake the photos really. It's not an option. And if by cropping you mean removing sections of the photo then that's also not really possible without ruining the photo. Resizing would be an option as it'd still leave the body of the picture in there but it's whether simple resizing would work.

Re sizing would work but to change the aspect ratio it would mean distorting the image so things in the image would look shorter and fatter. The best option is to maintain the aspect ratio when printing so if the paper is a different ratio you will have white borders.

AnotherJoe

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

Could I not just seize them to something with Infranview? Not sure what to resize them to but is that not possible?
.

As poster 11 says, if you resize to fit into 6x4 something will have to give, either you'll have white borders or you'll end up cropping something out.

All irfanview is doing is enlarging or shrinking the whole picture. This is not your problem , your problem is the aspect ratio and you can only change that by cropping, for example try to print at 7x5, larger than you need, then use scissors to cut out the bit you want that will fit into 6x4.

Otherwise if you squeezed or stretched the picture to change the aspect ratio then you end up with a distorted picture.

JustAnotherSaver

Nilrem wrote: »

the local Supermarket instore print facility is pretty much lowest common denominator

Failing that given the time constraints try and get the pictures printed at somewhere like Boots*

It was other posters who came talking about supermarkets. I only mentioned Boots

Thanks though, i'll see if i can get in to a proper print store this morning.

So if they alter the aspect ratio then some of the picture is going to get lost anyway? That's going to be a problem then i think because they're a little close up so unless the cropping is very minimal i'm going to end up losing some of the subject.