How Your Great, Great, Great, Grandmother's House Detemined The Size of Your Photographs Today!

Her house had windows made with 8x10 inch glass. This was the size of window panes made back then because they didn't have the technology to make large, clear, plate glass windows.

Photographers 150 years ago used this readily available 8x10 size glass to make glass-plate photographic negatives. It was what they had at hand.

Today we are left with that 8x10 size and shape, and stuck with that proportion which has carried over into other sizes like 11x14, 16x20, 20x24, 24x30.

Must your portrait be cropped and lose some of the image in order to fit into an 8x10? Usually...yes!

Today's professional cameras photograph an image proportional to 8x12, not 8x10. So to print an 8x10 or another proportional size, part of your portrait gets cropped away!

Just a few years ago in the days of film, cameras made for professional photographers produced an image directly proportional to 8x10 and nothing needed cropping.

Is there a simple way around the dilema?

Yes, one way is for us to photograph your portrait leaving a large amount of space around the subject so we can crop in. This can cause a small loss in usable resolution and clairity.

The other way is to make your portraits in the new sizes which give you a better looking portrait... sizes not necessarily proportional to 8x10... sizes like 4x6, 6.7x10, 8x12 and for a large family group or standing portrait of an individual ... sizes like 5x10, 8x16, 12x24.

Your photograph (not Grandma's window panes) should determine the size and shape that will look best for your portrait.