Digital Photo Processing.?

When I get my pictures back from Boots, they always end up cropping either the top or bottom. Why is this? It spoils many of my pictures, especially ones that I edit in camera. Is this a common occurrance ?

The pictures are normal when viewed on my laptop.

I have a Samsung L85.

I get 6x4 prints. Would a different ratio help?

The aspect ratio of the pictures that are taken on your camera are different from a 4x6.

Before digital cameras became so readily available to consumers, everyone had a 35mm camera. The 35mm aspect ratio became the standard at many labs and the 4x6 format picture was the norm. Although the aspect ratio on digital cameras is different now and closer to the proportions of say your television, your laptop computer, and 8x10, labs still have the 4x6 format available and some of the mini labs only have the capability to print bleed and need to crop your image to make it bleed or fill the 4x6, otherwise you would have borders. It's similar to the way one would view a movie film on television, there are borders on the top and bottom of your screen. Online, on http://www.kodakgallery.com/Welcome.jsp you can upload your photos and place a custom crop, print full frame, no cropping, etc.

Most photographers think ahead to the final output and frame their images accordingly. Account for cropping when you shoot.

when you take your picture ,don't fill up your shot too full in the viewer, give the picture a bit more all around so that if the print is cropped the whole shot is still there. I find that it depends on what size print you are having made calls the shot on some cropping situations. give some outside space and your digital shot will fit into the print better

Don't edit in camera, get Photoshop and do all your editing on your computer. And as said before, leave a bit more room around your subject. What you see in your viewfinder or on your LCD screen can be off a bit. First, I recommend always using the viewfinder over the screen, I have one camera that even if I crop with my lens and get in close there is more information around the outside edges I don't see in my viewfinder, another of my cameras (both Canons by the way) is the opposite, I need to back off a little bit or I lose some of my subject. If, after leaving more room it still seems like there is unwanted cropping going on take your files to someone else to print, it may be the people running the printer don't know what they are doing. I would also recommend buying your own printer and printing your own pics, then you have complete control.

If your camera lets you change the "aspect ratio" from 4:3 to 3:2, then your 6x4 prints will match up exactly, as there will be no need for cropping.

If you get prints from Flickr and specify the "D" dimension, they will crop according to the ratio you have used. 4xD in a 4:3 image would come out as a 4" x 5.33" print. 5xD would come out as a 5" x 6.6" print.

Otherwise, just stop cropping in the camera unless you can develop an eye for how much excess to LEAVE in your cropped image, but since you never know exactly how the crop will be made, you won't have 100% success.

I'd try Flickr. You can join for free unless you want to edal with very large files or go over 200 stored images. Even then, it is only something like $2.00 per month to raise the limits incredibly. Upload a few images and order some prints - which are very reasonably priced - and see what you think. I recommend having them delivered, as we have heard some complaints about the local store processing being inconsistant.