Photo processing - digital print sizes - it's all too much for me. Anyone know what I'm talking about?

[gladbag]

I have spent the past two days on my computer slowly and agonisingly categorising and sorting all our digital photographs for the past 5 years (I'm not normally into that sort of thing but my pfb and only is currently enjoying Reception, and I have 'time' on my hands to fill, so bear with me, and nod approvingly at my folder for each month since 2004, with handy tags to remind us of content/special occasions within....).

We haven't actually had any photos printed since 2005. I've been stressing about it more and more lately, so I've also at last got around to choosing and burning 800 (800 )onto a cd ready to be processed (at eye-watering cost, but it's my own fault for not having done it more regularly).

And here's the problem. I've done a bit of reading and apparently traditional print sizes of 6" X 4" were designed for 35mm film. Those print sizes don't work well for digital prints because the 'aspect ratio', which describes the height-to-length relationship of an image, is different for digital images resulting in your picture being cropped slightly. So the print is never exactly as your photo was when taken. A lot of companies now do 'digital' print sizes especially to overcome this problem starting at 6" x 4.5".

So I thought I'd get those done - seemed sensible as they are digital - but then I realised they wouldn't fit into a normal slip-in photo album (that half an inch makes all the difference) so I've tried to find an album on line that is sized correctly for digital prints. No one seems to do them. NO ONE at all. So is there any point?

I do realise that if you've got this far then you're probably as desperate as I am for something not even vaguely interesting to do. It's not a life or death thing. I just wondered. Anyone been through this and found what I'm talking about? Anyone?

I know what you're talking about, and because I couldn't find the right sort of photo albums, I ended up up-loading all my photos to photobox, setting the size to 6 x 4 and cropping photographs individually to get the part of the photo I wanted - all to get rid of the unwanted half inch!

There's no way you could do that with 800 photos - it would take you all year!

Sorry I can't help, but I just wanted to sympathise.

Photobox prices are good though - particularly for large numbers of prints. However, to upload 800 would take far too long.

I put all my 200 or so photos onto a disk and dh took them to Boots and printed them all off. I didnt crop them first or even edit them and they have all come out brilliantly at 6 x 4. You might just want to go and have a look at the prinitng machines in somewhere like Boots see what the options are. I have a lot of photo editing software on my computer and i didnt need to use it at all.

Thank you both.

Littlefish, you have restored my sanity by simply acknowledging that it is a problem, not just me (do you think that we may have found the truely rare 'gap in the market' to make our millions?). I did originally think I'd upload the photos, but quickly realised it was going to take too long.

Littlelapin, I used Microsoft Picture Manager to crop a few to 6X4 before I got all excited about the possibility of getting digital print sizes. I did look at those photobooks, and decided they looked fab, but thought they wouldn't work because of the sheer volume. I have kept out 2 lots of proper holiday photos that I think I'll do that with though.

I've got all the pictures I want printed in two folders so I might go through them again, crop'em all and reburn them ( I really need to get a job).

That's interesting Ecmo - I did that with my first lot of digital photos, but found that Boots chopped the top off every single one, so the top of our heads was missing every time!

Ecmo - thank you for the reassurance. I think you're right, in that for most shots it will make little difference. I suppose it's just for a few carefully framed shots that it could be a problem. And I think it depends on the processing place a bit - apparently some crop off the top, some off the bottom etc, so you are never really sure.

I rejected the idea of photobooks for them all simply because I'd have to upload every individual picture, in the correct order, which would take me forever - or am I getting the idea wrong?

I didn't actually mention that the 800 photos I'm getting printed just gets me up to March 2007. That was my limit for the time being, and I'll start again from there next month .

Let this be a warning to you - get your digital photos printed at regularly intervals!

There are some drop-in albums that come in 6 x 4.5... I've definitely seen them. Now I just have to see whether I can find them again.

Really? please do let me know if you can think if it.

No luck yet... but a passing thought that 8 x 6 is the same ratio as 6 x 4.5, and 8 x 6 albums are easier to come by (not easy, precisely, but easier).

thanks for that.... will continue the search tomorrow, and if no luck will start cropping

Gack... can't find anything now. Maybe the company that made them went bust (it was a few years ago that I saw them)?

The best that I can do is a system like this -- you can get insert pages that take 6 x 4.5 photographs. But it works out very expensive.