Photo Sizes (?)

This may be a silly question, but I thought I would gain some advice from many scrapbookers such as yourselves.

I've been working with 12x12 albums since I started scrapping in 2005. I've done a couple 8x8, too. Anyways, I understand that a 4x6 is the standard size for a printed photo, and if you want something larger like an 8x10 or 5x7 you buy them (or print them if you have that size paper for your printer). I typically go to a local megastore with a photo department and print them out.

My issue is that after using 4x6 over and over again, it just seems that the pictures don't just..STAND OUT..if you get what I'm saying. Sometimes I only use one 4x6 or even crop it smaller, say like a 3x3...on a 12x12 sheet of paper. I like embellishments, but it just isn't enough.

What do you guys do to print larger - or rather different sizes - of photos? I see pages on this site and they're beautiful cuz they're like a 4x10 or 6x12...just like different sizes that make the photo and page itself stand out.

Any help is appreciated. I just want to start doing something different.

For the most part I order 4x6 photos from an online printing site; right now I'm using Snapfish. If I know I have an order going in for photos, and can wait for the photo, I will order the additional different sized photos or collages from them.
But usually I can't wait so print them at home... Same goes w/ collages; I generally make them and print them at home... Honestly my collages look way better than the ones that come from Snapfish!
Another thing, IG (Instagram) photos don't generally print well from online printing sites because they are approximately 4x4, so I like to print those at home too!
My suggestion, if you don't already have one, is buy a good printer and while you still may order photos from a professional lab, you can use the printer to occasionally print your own different sized photos.
Sometimes I think it's cheaper to print at home.
There are times I get some great coupons for Snapfish and that is when it's better to print from them...especially when you have hundreds of photos to print! I just submitted an order for about 250 photos and only paid $16 including shipping! In that case it was cheaper to order from them. Not to mention less time consuming! Can you imagine printing 250 photos at home?!?!?
I realize I probably gave you more info than you were looking for, but I hope I helped a little!

I print most of my photos in a 4 x 6 or a true photo size which is a little bit smaller.

If it is a really good photo and I don't want it to get lost in the crowd I print it in 5 x 7 or 8 x 10.

If I'm in a cruise ports - like I was in Venice last year I had one gondola photo in 8 x 10 and did a one page of that photo and the rest were 4 x 6 or true digital size which is slightly smaller than a 4 x 6.

Cameras actually shoot in true digital so sometimes when those are printed in 4 x 6 tops of heads and things are cut off. True digital prints them as you see on your camera viewfinder or your computer screen.

I did a lot of pages on Egypt earlier this year I printed my favorite one in 8 x 10 - a close-up of us kissing as we are on a boat going down the Nile.

I also print 4 x 4's frequently and even 8 x 8's sometimes. I print them all at Walgreens and they do a pretty good job. When I go in with a big batch to do that is in the hundreds I talk to the manager and they will usually do them for 9 or 10 cents each.

I print everything from walgreens.com. That way I can use their coupons and I still get to pick them up with in 2 hours of ordering. They even have collage prints. So if I want something small I put a bunch of pictures into the collage (they even may be different pictures for different LOs). Only draw back is I can't determine what the size of my pictures are. On the plus side walgreens printing is always flawless.

Personally I do most of my scrappin with 4x6's, but I do love using 8x10's when I really want to make it pop. But be warned, if you are a 12x12 scrapper a large photo can be hard to scrap...especially if you love embellies and patterned paper as much as I do. Make sure you check out the gallery (look under categories- photo sizes- large) for inspiration. 5x7's are fun too...espeically if you use tiny prints with them. Honestly have fun, and enjoy experimenting.

I print different sizes at home, as you suspected most of us do. I also like to print in 3x5 at home, rather than 4.6 because I can get more photos on the page. And 3x5 is good "supporting photo" size. I have printed 8x10 at home, as well, but nothing larger.

I also order from Shutterfly when I want to print a ton of photos, but really don't love doing that because I don't like all my photos to be the same size.

True - 8 x 10's can be hard to scrap. I use a lot of layers in my matting and a sideways title all the way down he side if its a vertical and a big title across the top or bottom if it is a horizontal picture.

You can get a few flowers or embellies but not much else! Sometimes I just make pretty mats using around the page sets or other border or ribbon punches.

I'm working on a 8*10 right now, big dreamy shot that I wanted to be big and stand out.. it's a difficult page for me to work with, because the photo dominates, and there's not much room to embellish or add accents. The photo was sitting in the pile for at least half a year, I was waiting for a good idea to come to me.. it's time now)))

normally 5*7 is as large as I would let it go. I did a page once with 8*10 and a 3*3, love it absolutely, but it's not a regular practice..

I seem to have 2 or 3 of the 8 x 10's in each book and I enjoy working with them. I'll go get a few examples and post them for you.

Butterflies By Henri Jean

Roan and the Chocolate Doughnut By Henri Jean

The Saputo Family By Henri Jean

Murano, Italy 2 By Henri Jean

Herculaneum - Bill By Henri Jean

Herculaneum - Bill & Me By Henri Jean

I personally like to get some 4x6 prints from a shop, then have my printer ready at home. When I find a page needs a photo of a different size, I use a photo program to enlarge or shrink a photo to fit that space. It's kind of expensive getting both prints and printing images out, but the photo places produce much more quality prints, and I find if I use some of the quality prints with a few lesser quality images in smaller format, the eye can't tell the difference in quality. And that way, I have the freedom to make all the sizes I want. I suppose you could make your layout in advance with a template and know which photos you wanted which size. Then you could go to your photo place and manually choose the size for each photo. That would be more economical and you'd have the quality every time. But I just can't think in advance like that.

I think your right though, I think pages have to have a variety of sizes and shapes (I love cut my photos into ovals, circles, and hearts) in order to really work well. Otherwise, after a while of looking at pages with photos all the same size, your eyes get bored, and it feells like your telling the same story.

That being said, there are a ton of templates on here that call for different sized photos to be used, and you can get an idea of what a page with different sized photos will look like with them.

Good luck!

I really like square photos these days so I print a lot of 3x3 or 4x4.....and I use multiple photos on the layout.
I buy photo paper at business store....there are a lot of options, different sizes, different finishes etc...
I've printed photos on mat, satin and glossy....I've printed on vellum, on canvas....I've printed 4x6 or 5x7 or 3x3.....or 2x2 and done "photo strips"....

I did invest in a photo printer....if you have an all-in-one printer, they just don't print photos as well....
Mix it up, have fun with it!

High Park Pond By Kiyawinn

I use a word processor (WORD) to insert images from a file on my hard drive to my word document. Then I can resize the image to any size at all, up to the full page. I use letter-size photo paper from Staples. I frequently copy and paste an image several times and make each one a different size. Several images can fit on a single page. Then after I print them out (on my Canon printer at home), I can choose the best size for a particular layout.

I like square photos too Alison. I'm glad to see that Walgreens if offering 4 x 4 and 8 x 8 as options.

I like the look of the square photos, but do you have to crop a lot to fit in the frame?

Does anyone use 6x8?

Wow! Walgreens offers square prints now?? Awesome...I'm gonna go check that out now!

I have never used 6x8...but then again I some times trim down my 8x10's...they might end up close to that. I don't know. Most of the time I just let the picture determine what size it looks good in. Haha Wish I could do that!

Yes - they definitely have 4 x 4 and 8 x 8 - and I love it!

I have used 4x8 before, a new option at the shopping center I usually go to. I don't care for Walgreen prints much because I don't see the quality is as good, plus they tend to crop the photo and it affects people's bodies and/or faces.

There are some online printing sites that can print larger sizes like 11x14 (you would have to crop that of course), including popular sites like Shutterfly. I also found a website (nations photo lab) that can do 12x12, but haven't used them so I can't vouch for them. You could create a collage with your photo software (I use picassa which is free and easy to create collages) to get two 12x6 pictures, for example, and have them printed together as a 12x12 and cut them out and use them on separate pages. That would be a nice bold statement! That website also does 10x10 and other interesting sizes. A lot of the cool large-photo pages I see here and elsewhere are (I think) digi, so it's easy for the scrapper to increase the size of the picture. For us traditional scrappers, it's a bit more of a challenge! Good luck.

For those of you with dedicated photo printers... Any recommendations? I have most of my photos printed, but I would like a new photo printer for those odd size photos while I'm in the middle of a layout and don't want to wait!

I've seen others here say they use Word for this and while I find that easy, I don't get the same quality of photo that I get when I'm using a photo editing software. (Using the same photo paper) Is there something I don't know about using Word? It is very handy in changing to all sorts of sizes that photo editing won't do.

I think maybe it had something to do with the color profiles or something. I even print journaling from PSE or the color will not come out the same as I see on the screen.

Yes it must be, I need to look into that Thank you!

Word is really not the best for printing photos from, even now - and it's improved a lot. It simplifies the colours and "dumbs down" the resolution. It was never really designed for handling pictures.

Have you tried/got Powerpoint? That's better for resolution (it's designed for slideshows) and has good editing power. It's still good to get your photos looking beautiful in a proper graphics program first though.

• mcmomuv4 Said:

I just bought this one and so far I love it!
And the price is excellent as well!
http://www.amazon.com/HP-Envy-4500-Wireless-Printer/dp/B00CIDQ470/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1417707716&sr=8-2&keywords=hp+envy+printer

I order prints from mpix and love them. The quality is great and you can get prints almost any size.

If you are printing your photos at home... there's an option in Picasa for printing posters - you specify the "poster" size and it will split single photo into several and print them separately, then you can assemble a large size print from the 4*6 . I've printed 8*12 once from four 4*6 photos, it was cool!