What size to crop?

Ice #130. Boulder Creek, Colorado, 2013. Cropped to an approximate 2:1 ratio.

I tend to crop most of my images to 18×12, a 3:2 ratio which basically matches the proportion of my camera frame. With a one-inch white border added, this makes the image 19×13, a common and manageable print size. (The idea is that the white border gets trimmed away along with the overhanging edges of the affixed dry mount tissue so that the tissue fits perfectly, or simply covered by a mat.) This 18×12 dimension will also fit nicely inside the standard frame size of 24×20. Now and then, I’ll crop square, at 12×12 (1:1 ratio), or 20×16 (5:4 ratio), again with the same white border.

I like the idea of relatively standard sizes. This makes it easy to find mats and frames to fit–you avoid the costs and pain of custom work.

However, I know perfectly well that one shouldn’t do things this way!

What is the right answer? Well, the nature of the image should determine how it is cropped–not some desire to maintain uniform, but really rather arbitrary, sizes.

So, what is my solution to this conundrum? Most of the time I will try to maintain standard sizings–it’s cheaper to mat and frame and it looks better on the wall when several images are shown together. BUT, when an image is screaming for it, I’ll crop as the image dictates…and then I’ll look at building a mat that has a standard outer dimension for a standard frame size. Sort of a compromise strategy, if you will.

How you do things will depend on your art. You may even elect to print onto canvas, wood, aluminum, glass, fabric, or whatever…or you may elect to simply hang your prints from clothes pins and piano wire…or you may just dry mount your prints to foamcore and leave it at that…or you may make prints that fit perfectly into the mats and frames available at Walgreens or Costco. Whatever you do is fine as long as it fits the style of art that you do.