Photo Sizing, Cropping, and Selling

[CarolinaMoon]

I am so mad...:cry

Yesterday I had a mother contact me about purchasing a SmugMug canvas photo product (the largest one!) of her son playing baseball. She had said she wasn't too sure what do since when she selected the largest canvas product the photo was needing too much cropping and did not capture the entire image. Because of this issue I am missing out on a very big purchase. So my questions are...

1. What should I be doing with the images while editing, cropping, and resizing prior to a SmugMug upload so the customer could purchase ANY SmugMug product or photo they desire?

2. I have been exporting out of LightRoom my raw or dng files to a jpeg with dimensions of 3504x2336 with a resolution of 300. Should I be doing something different?

3. When cropping in LightRoom, should be cropping for a certain image size on ALL images or should I be doing something else?

Help! I am checking to see if I still have the original file but it would have been nice to get the sale when the customer was ready to buy.

Thanks in advance.

[Phyxius]

To me it sounds like the issue is the size ratio, not the actually dimensions. Most dSLRs have a ratio of 2:3, so the same as a 4x6 or 8x12. My most common prints sizes (I shoot at horse shows) are 4x6, 5x7, and 8x10 or 8x12. I price the 4x6 and 5x7 the same and the 8x10 and 8x12 the same.

Depending on the image I crop it as a 4x6 or 8x10 before uploading, but I always keep the original and I also have proof delay on in my galleries in case a particular size (ratio) doesn't work with the way I've cropped the image.

You can make it clear to the customer that you'll check the images before they process and can adjust the crop and upload a new version before it goes to the printer (use the "replace photo" menu). Only occasionally have I had a big change occur and I've uploaded two versions in a seperate gallery and then contacted the customer personally asking which version they'd prefer.

You can also limit which items you have for sale so that your chosen crop fits the image ratios available to the customer. For more information on sizes, crops, and other options check here - Catalog Info (http://www.smugmug.com/prints/catalog2.mg)

[CarolinaMoon]

Thanks for replying Christina. This is good information.

Does anyone else have advice out there for me?

[SteveM]

Probably one of the best pieces of advice is to keep a generous crop. This can always be tightened up to accommodate any print or product size. Have a look at our canvas file prep tutorial to get things just right, though.

http://dgrin.smugmug.com/gallery/3674263

I hope this helps!