Setting up photos in Photoshop for printing?!

[vincentvalle]

Hello- can anyone tell me how to set up a picture in photoshop and save it so that when I bring it to a photo printing place, the entire picture is there? I just went to a photo lab and used one of those Kodak machines. It sends the data to the actual printer used for printing 35mm and while they come out nice, I cannot ever get the entire picture in there. It always ends up cropping it. I am new to photoshop and have no idea how to set up and save my shots in photoshop so that this does not happen. Help!!

Vincent Valle

[catherine780]

a digital print is not the same size as a 35mm. What you have to do on Photoshop is crop the image to the size in which you're going to print it. choose the selection tool and choose fixed aspect ratio and put in the desired size and crop the image.

[vincentvalle]

Cath-
Thank you! I tried this but I can't seem to get 8x10. My other questions is, how does one get the white boarder around the picture, as done in traditional 35mm printing/darkroom? If I ad a boarder, how big should it be?

Vince

[creativeimagery]

Vince,

I suspect the problem is in the printer, and not how you've set up the picture. It may not be possible, with the automated printer you are using, to tell it not to crop any of the image. If that's the case, you'll need to find another printer, or go to a photo lab that can do it. It's pretty typical, however, for photo labs to expand the image to completely fill the paper, which almost always results in some of the image being cropped off.

Terry

[ilanphoto]

The system my printer uses has a fit or crop option The fit can leave white lines on two of the sides while the crop will crop something off - and you can never know what.
I always ask for fit as it is easier to cut the white border around

To start off you must know the size you are going to print then fit the picture into a new file of that size you can also leave white (or any other colour) border while you place it there

HTH
Ilan

[gaphoon]

I had this same problem and I found quite a nice way to fix it. I don't reccommend it for a lot of photos though it takes few seconds.
1 open image to print
2 open a NEW file File>New
here you can choose the size of photo you want to print, if you want an 8x10, enter 8x10. I think PS7 has a number of presets already. NOTE- this feature is great for specialty frames, say you need a 2"x3.5" photo.
Make sure you also set your resolution to 150, 300 or whatever.

Now you have a blank frame the size and resolution THAT YOU WANT YOUR FINISHED PRINT TO BE.
3 use the move tool to grab and drop the image you want to print into your new frame.

4 position your photo in the new frame (your printing problem should be very clear at this point if your cameras format is not 2:3, the image doesn't fit right.
5 do whatever scaling or trimming you need to in order get your image to fit in your frame.
6 take a look at your layers, you should have a blank background with your picture layer on top. this provides an unlimited amount of possibilities as far as your border goes.
7 remembering that this new file is 8x10, if you fill your background layer with white and make your photo slightly smaller the white will make your border (or any other color)

now when you go to print you will know exactly what it will look like when your finished. I do this before I do any editing. I open my photo and immediatly put it in a doc the size I'm going to print.

8 with your new border, you can add a drop shadow or glow to your photo layer or you could even use a jagged brush to erase the edges to give a more dramatic effect.

it sounds more difficult than it is., hope this helps