Expert: John Oliverio - 4/16/2009

Question
I recently purchased a Canon SD790IS digital camera with an aspect ratio of 4:3 (set by the factory.) I then went on vacation and took over 500 photos. I now find out that when these images are developed on 4X6 prints, all 4 sides will be trimmed, and many heads will be partially cut off. I did not realize that I should have changed the aspect ratio on the camera to 3:2, then I would not have this problem. Is there any way I can use the SD card with the 500+ images and somehow get it developed on 4X6 prints without anything being cut off?  I would like the prints to contain the exact image as shown on the camera screen. Thank you.

Answer
Alan, Hello and thanks for the questions.  Sorry you are having trouble.  I don't know why they do that.  Most of the makers do that on little cameras.  But on the big SLRs they set a proper 3:2.  


Well, you could do the opposite of cropping the images.  You could "zoom" the image back so that it would have white boarders.  Of course while the paper you got back would be 4x6, the actual image on the paper would still be 4:3.  

You can't change a pictures aspect ratio without distorting the image or cropping.

You could be creative with the problem.  Situate the image on the paper so that the white boarder is larger along the bottom.  The use the bottom to add captions or other graphics.  Of course this wouldn't be practical to do on 500 images.  But you could do it with 10 of your favorites.

John