Crop Factors and your Favorite Piece of Art

Just when you thought life couldn’t get any more complicated, someone had to go ahead and ask “What crop factor would you like this printed in?” What?????

Reproductive art, such as photographs and print reproductions of paintings or drawings are produced in a specific size determined by the artist or photographer. With photographs, the most common camera default crop factor is 3:2 which I believe is a carry over from the film days of photography when the most popular camera film size was 35mm. I have to admit, I have not taken the time to find out why it was referred to as 35mm when the actually size of a 35mm negative is 36mm x 24mm. Be that as it may, the common denominator to both of these dimensions is twelve. If you were to divide 12 into both of the dimensions you would find the ratio of 35mm film would calculate to 3:2, sometimes referred to as 3 by 2 (3x2).

Does this mean you are “stuck” with that image crop factor? Well, that depends on the artist. Many images will reproduce fine in a different crop factor as long as you understand there will be trade offs for altering the artist’s design. If the image in question is a portrait or a single subject image like in the example at above changing the crop factor from a 2x3 format to a 3x4 or just about any other size will have limited consequences. The only real sacrifice is in the amount of “negative space” between the subject matter and the edge of the image/frame.

But what if you are dealing with a landscape image? In this case you will have considerably more factors to consider.

The landscape example at left demonstrates the sacrifices that come into play when changing a landscape image crop factor. This image was intended as a panorama when shot. Its physical size as shot, what I call “native size” is 30” x 14.” This crop factor is totally random and determined by the photographer’s decision as to what should remain in the image versus what is superfluous and not needed. In this case the crop ratio is a little over 2:1.

DYI Framing

The least expensive way to purchase photographic art is as an “Art Print.” Many will choose this method of acquiring art they like, frame and matte the piece themselves. If you plan to frame in this manner, I recommend stay clear of the panorama art. This “DYI Framing” won’t usually lend itself to panorama images unless you are building your own frame and mattes.

Most retail framing solutions from “big box” stores come in a number of sizes with most being made to a limited number of crop factors. The same holds true for most of the online sources as well. Even a 16:9 crop factor, which is fairly common in recent years (it directly relates to television and/or movie sizes known as “letterbox”) can sometimes be a challenge to find. More common crop factors are 1:1, 2:3, 4:5 and 5:7. In the case of a 2:3 image that measures 8” x 12,” you should be able to find frames to fit this size image in just about any store. If you were to matte this image you could easily find an 11”x 14” matte and frame.

On the other hand, with panorama images you are best to purchase them with matte and frame or plan to order a specific size frame from a retail or online source.