I am not a professional photographer but would like to put some of my favorite digi photos into mats and folios like pros use. Is there anywhere I can buy these ??? I've searched online and every site I've gone sells only to professional or commercial photographers.

My local hobby shops sell the standard cutouts.

Along these lines why are photos sized 4x4 and 5x5 called proofs? Are they not finished products and how then are they turned into 5x7 and 8x10 sizes without distorting the photo???? Do the pros have a magic device?? When I use resizing on PS7 I do not end up with same photo - something has to be cropped out. Am I missing something????????

Thanks for any advice. Cinderella

1. For folios and mats, here are a couple sites to check out:

B&H Photo (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?ci=1&sb=ps&pn=1&sq=desc&InitialSearch=yes&O=SearchBar&A=search&Q=*&bhs=t&shs=albums&image.x=10&image.y=9)

Light Impressions (http://www.lightimpressionsdirect.com/servlet/OnlineShopping)

You may also want to try a Google search using "wedding albums" or "professional albums"

2. I'm not sure about the proof question, it may just be a personal preference of the photographer. The image is probably cropped to meet the 4x4 or 5x5 size, then later once the proofs are selected, the entire image is printed. Hopefully someone else will answer that.

3. As for why you lose some of your image when resizing, that depends on what you are doing. If you are trying to resize your image to meet a certain size, say 4x6, the reason you may lose some of your image has to do with the aspect ratio and proportions. These article may help explain it better:

Aspect Ratio and Cropping (http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/glossary/g/aspectratio.htm)

Cropping (http://www.takegreatpictures.com/articles/default.asp?aid=1875)

Thanks for all the links.
I had fun looking at B&H Photo. Now if I could put together a pack of 10 mats - one from each group I would be happy. I just don't need 10 of one kind. But I'm sure I'll find something there. I wonder if they are acid free etc. I saw no mention of that. Light Impressions goes to great lengths about this quality of their mats.
I do know that some photos I matted arbitrarily 30 years ago have definitly shifted color. Is that due to the mats or the process of the print?? I wonder.
I can see that framing and matting is not as easy as it looks.

2. I'm not sure about the proof question, it may just be a personal preference of the photographer. The image is probably cropped to meet the 4x4 or 5x5 size, then later once the proofs are selected, the entire image is printed. Hopefully someone else will answer that.



When we used film (BD or before digital) the majority of professional photographers used medium format cameras, of which the 2 1/4 by 2 1/4 inch format was by far the most popular. That meant that you did not have to turn the camera to produce either a vertical or horizontal image. So proof prints were printed square to match the film format. When one ordered enlargements, then the negs were cropped to exclude the unwanted areas and produce rectangular prints in the correct format. Easy as that! :D