About Print Aspect Ratios

When you zoom-in on a photograph on our site, you are viewing the native photograph in it’s native aspect ratio. All of the photographs on our site are taken with digital cameras. The native aspect ratio for most digital cameras is 2×3.

When you order a print from us and select a size that is marked as “native”, your print will consist of the entire photograph taken by the camera. The following image is an example of a “native” uncropped photograph.

When you order a 5×7 aspect ratio, we crop the native photograph to match the 5×7 aspect ratio. This results in portions of the original photograph being cut-off. When cropping, we try to remove areas of the photograph that are “white space” or not critical to the subject matter of the photograph. The image below shows how we might crop a photograph to fit a 5×7 aspect ratio. The darker areas of the image below indicate what portions of the photograph we’d crop.

Likewise when you order a 4×5 aspect ratio, we crop the native photograph to match the 4×5 aspect ratio. The image below shows how we might crop a photograph to fit a 4×5 aspect ratio. The darker areas of the image below indicate what portions of the photograph we’d crop.

Please call or email us if you have any questions about aspect ratios or cropping prior to placing an order.