The "Money Making Mat"

So in one of the FB groups I frequent, they often refer to the "Money Making Mat", which is a script for Elements and PS that plops your photo crop onto a black border before you save it to reduce the number of edits you have to provide to a customer when giving them a disk full of digital images.

The theory is, no matter what size they want to print, the crop won't interfere with the picture itself, but rather it simply changes the amount of the black mat that frames the picture.

Any opinions on this, or do any of you do something similar?

I can post examples in a bit, when I get home, if anyone is curious.

Pretzel said:

So in one of the FB groups I frequent, they often refer to the "Money Making Mat", which is a script for Elements and PS that plops your photo crop onto a black border before you save it to reduce the number of edits you have to provide to a customer when giving them a disk full of digital images.

The theory is, no matter what size they want to print, the crop won't interfere with the picture itself, but rather it simply changes the amount of the black mat that frames the picture.

Any opinions on this, or do any of you do something similar?

I can post examples in a bit, when I get home, if anyone is curious.

Click to expand...

Sounds interesting. I am wondering how it would translate when you have different amounts of black on the top or sides and did not look proportional.

Here's the same photo in 2 size samples so you can see the effect. It definitely changes the feel a bit, but...

4x5(8x10)



4x6


Main image stays the same, but the mat size changes to match the print/crop choice without chopping the main image.

Thoughts??

I don't like it. I think if I received photos like this I'd complain and tell them to do the job properly. Sounds like an idea invented by a geek rather than a pro with quality in mind.

Geoffc said:

I don't like it. I think if I received photos like this I'd complain and tell them to do the job properly. Sounds like an idea invented by a geek rather than a pro with quality in mind.

Click to expand...

Got to agree. I don't like it


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Not for me.

The customer isn't getting the size photo they may believe they are getting, if the sizing involves the black border. To adjust for a larger frame, when you only have a small photo that doesn't looks good blown up, then it might be good. But they do that already with materials that would look better anyway. So I can see that it has much practical use, in my honest opinion.

It takes something away from the image. Draws a lot of focus away from the subject, for me at least.

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Well, I find crop for print to be a little annoying sometimes. Camera size and print size doesn't match.

If my picture are perfect (the crop), then it probably doesn't fit when they want it printed.

What I am saying - if the web size (which I always give and they chose the prints they want them self) are how the picture should look, I should actually make the print size different, more space around the edges.

I don't want a black frame though. I've been thinking about this - I guess I shouldn't crop the print size, only the web size? That is, if I make sure to do the image with a little more space on the edges, than it should have..






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Bill16 said:

The customer isn't getting the size photo they may believe they are getting, if the sizing involves the black border. To adjust for a larger frame, when you only have a small photo that doesn't looks good blown up, then it might be good. But they do that already with materials that would look better anyway. So I can see that it has much practical use, in my honest opinion.

Click to expand...

If you change from a 4x5 to an 8x10, the actual image DOES get larger, it's just the crop size you choose that changes the ratio of the black border around the image. For example, the 4x5 listed above would blow up fine to an 8x10 or 16x20, but the proportion of the image to the border would remain the same. If resized to say... a 5x7 or 11x14, the border ratio changes somewhat instead of perhaps clipping away part of the photo.

I, for one, find it a bit odd, but was curious as to what some of the folks in the "biz" would say.

To me it looks like a lazy way of doing it fast rather than sizing/cropping images correctly. Fast vs. quality; I'll take quality every time.

Not big on it. If I'm shooting for someone else then I'd rather crop the original for the most square version and allow for cropping at the sides to maintain a full frame. As wud states, it's one of the many pitfalls of camera ratios being so different from frame ratios.