Why are my digital photos being croppped?

I recently left in some digital pics to be printed and noticed that some of them seem to have some of peoples heads cropped off.

Now I am guessing it is down to the photos being shot in 4mp and then being printed out in 6x4? Perhaps the full 4mp needs 7x5 at least to display the full image?

I'm not sure - can any expert on here advise?

The number of MP isn't your problem. It happens because the actual size of a digital photo is 6x4.4 not 6x4 like regular film. So you lose almost half an inch off each picture. Your options are to have a blank strip down each side, or crop a bit off the bottom of the picture (or get it printed at 6x4.4)

But the local big name processors only offer 6x4, 7x5, 8x6 etc.

So will I always lose part of my picture? Is there anything I could do (with software etc) once I have the pictures to make sure ALL of it is printed? Such as take it into a package and reduce it slightly, say 5% before resaving the file?

If you want the full picture, in one of those sizes, you have a couple of choices.
You can stretch the picture but that distorts it.
Or you can have a blank strip down the sides to fill in the space (about 7mm each side on the 6in dimension)
Or you can crop the photo yourself to decide which bit isn't vital to get it down to the right size

See here http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/glossary/g/aspectratio.htm
and here

Berni

Thanks for all your feedback.

I used a company about a year ago that had the white bands down each side and I just thought it was a fancy little touch they had added !!

So there was a reason for it. To be honest I thought it looked the part, and so I will be going back to them in future as the people who just printed off my latest prints obviously don't care about losing parts of photos.

Thanks again.

aldiphotos.ie allow you to pick either 'classic format' (2:3 ratio as used by 35mm film cameras and digital SLR cameras) or 'original format' which is ideal for pictures taken with compact digital cameras as the paper is slightly smaller but in the correct 3:4 ratio for these compact cameras.

No association with them other than as a happy customer. They're good quality prints and cheap (9c per print plus 1.99 p&p). I've always had quick delivery with the prints arriving three to four days after ordering.