Printing 6X6

I print 6x6 neg. on 11x14 sheet and trim all sides to about 1/4 inch.

Jeff

Ektagraphic said:

I totally agree but if I give square prints as an output, I don't want people to run into a problem when wanting to frame or something and then coming back to me angry.

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One other thing to add, you should be selling your work matted and framed. The price should reflect the "value added" , and its a very good marketing strategy, besides the increase in profit generated by the extras. People are more willing to pay the extra for a complete package and not having to deal with finding frames and mats.

DWThomas said:

In general, I print what I like out of the negative, but assuming my neurons were firing when I composed in the viewfinder, I usually print 6x6 as square. The beauty of this is that I can precut the paper to approximately square and use the offcut for test strips. I have varied over time, but generally frame the square print optically centered in a rectangular frame, long dimension vertical.

But there's no law about it!

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Same here

DWThomas said:

In general, I print what I like out of the negative, but assuming my neurons were firing when I composed in the viewfinder, I usually print 6x6 as square. The beauty of this is that I can precut the paper to approximately square and use the offcut for test strips. I have varied over time, but generally frame the square print optically centered in a rectangular frame, long dimension vertical.

But there's no law about it!

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That's my preference, but I had to frame some 6x6 images last year that people had bought and there was a great price on some square frames at a local store £7 ($10) when I was in the UK and I was surprised how good the framed images looked.

Ian

It depends on how I "saw" the picture when I composed it in the viewfinder, and how well it balances in the square frame, I look at the contact sheet with a couple of "L" frames and see if the composition can be improved by making it a vertical or a horizontal and mark it with a grease pencil, I try not to be rigid about it 6X6 was devised to be able to crop it, although I try to use the whole neg if I can.

To OP - it's up to you how you want to crop it. Make as few rules as you can about photography - the important part is always the picture, and you should never disregard any tool to make it the best picture you can.
While it's admirable, and recommended, to try to get everything right in camera, sometimes we see things differently a while down the road. Explore the potential in each negative - to completely disregard cropping is to limit your possibilities.

- Thomas

I generally print 7.5" square on 8x10 paper (or about 14" square on 16x20 paper). To me the composition dictates the shape of the final print or the amount of cropping done. If I wanted rectangular, I'd probably have shot with a different camera, although I know I can make nice crops with a tlr, I'm usually thinking about how to make a square shaped composition.