Digital photo sizing issue.

I would like to be able to tweak my photo’s so that I can incorporate an area of margin around them (so that the image sits within the picture frame mounts that I have bought) rather than covering the entire printable surface of the photo paper.

Ideally, for example, I would like to be able to specify an image size of 90mm x 140mm placed in a specific place on a 5×9″ print.

I’m using ‘Photos’ and also have ‘Aperture’ but can’t work out how to do it. Or maybe its just not the right software?

Any advice welcome. Cheers!

This is an example the effect that I would like to achieve:

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I feel I ought to be able to help you and I would really like to help you but this is one of those things that’s so much more complicated than it should be, even on a Mac.

I’ll have a look at photos and see if I can advise you.

Print with preview, spec the paper size and then scale the pic, you get the option to produce a PDF of the image so you can check your have the margin you want.
That’s how I did it the last time I us preview (I usually use photoshop)

OK so I’ve had a look at how Photos manages printing and i’m fairly sure that that you can’t do what you’re asking.

I know I can do it using the software I use (Capture One) and I would do that by specifying the border I want around the image (so that I end up with a printed image the size I want), and then telling the software to expand the image to fill the remaining space.

Whether or not you can do that with Apeture I don’t know but I imagine you can, I just don’t know what the commands would be.

The key to making it work is to expand the image to fill whatever specifided printed area you are left with once you’ve managed the borders. If you don’t then because the image will always end up maintaining it’s aspect ratio it won’t fill the print area.

You could also try outputting from Apeture as a specified size. Usually you can do this and select the units by which this is done, for exmaple pixels (height / width), mm, cm, inches etc. If you do this, you will then need to manage the borders manually because most likely the print software will just plonk that image on the page and you’ll have borders that aren’t equal.

All of whichis really complicated. Honestly, the way I always approach this is to print to a standard size/ratio (such as 7×5) and then use the apeture in the frame to frame the picture. I think the image you’ve shown would look nicer if the printed area filled the apeture but that’s probably not helping!

@geetee1972 – Thank you so much for taking the time to even provide an answer, let alone such a thorough and sensible one!

I’m going to work through the technical points of your advice tomorrow, because I’ve had a reasonably generous glass of wine now.

But I am curious about your perspective on how photo’s should be mounted/fill the available space. I’ve got so many shots that I want to print and put on my walls, and this single issue has held me up for maybe . . . three years.

What I don’t want is a 4×8″ print in a 4×8″ mount where the edges start lifting and the whole crisp image thing goes to shit.

Would love to hear your perspective.

And once again, thanks for taking the time! 😀

@MrSmith – Many thanks to you, too. I’m going to try that out as well. Cheers!

Actually, geetee1972, I see what you mean. I’m not sure why I got so hung up about the negative space. That said, I still need to know how to place the shot with a degree of ‘bleed’ (?) so as to underly the mount card.

Hhmmm . . . .

But I am curious about your perspective on how photo’s should be mounted/fill the available space.

Don’t be, it’s just a personal preference. I’d print them how you want.

Re keeping the images nice and flat (and giving the pens an occassional bat :wink:) when I’ve had mine framed for exhibitions I’ve aways sacrificed a few mm under the edge of the aperture in order to achieve that.

That said, I still need to know how to place the shot with a degree of ‘bleed’ (?) so as to underly the mount card.

Ah you mean ‘full bleed’? That would make sense. I don’t know whether the apetures of ready mades are slightly smaller than the print size but it would make sense if they are as otherwise you do run into the problem of what holds the photograph flat.

I’ve aways sacrificed a few mm under the edge of the aperture in order to achieve that.

whether the apetures of ready mades are slightly smaller than the print size

For the moment (to get beloved shots off of a hard drive and onto walls) I’ll have a little play with that. Negative space mount can wait for a while. Thank you! 🙂

The printer driver is usually the place I would check for adding borders. It may be that the printer you use does not have the facility and you’ll need to do some mucking around with image size on the paper. Those printers sold expressly for photo-printing will have an option in the print dialogue box (Layout dropdown springs to mind) for adding borders etc.