I am a painter. I took a photo of a painting and noticed that the aspect ratio looked a little off.

[jwt99]

The aspect ratio looked slightly wider in the horizontal and shorter in the vertical aspect.  I turned the painting horizontal and took a photo and it looked correct but when I rotated it to upright in digital photo pro it returned to the slightly wider and shorter than reality aspect ratio.  Any help would be appreciated. I am using a EOS 40D camera.

[jwt99]

That is strange because a 16X20 should give a ratio of 1:1.25 ratio and a 16X24 should give a 1:1.5 ratio but they both are looking a little wider and shorter than the originals with the 16 X24 painting  image looking a lot wider and shorter and the 16 X20 looks less shorter and wider but clearly isn't the same as the original.  These are portraits and it is very easy for humans to see differences in facial proportions.  People have a talent for seeing differences in human facial proportions so I am pretty sure they aren't correct.

[TTMartin]

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@jwt99 wrote:

@That is interesting.  I don't know what is causing the issue then.  Clearly I am not grasping the problem but the camera is making photos of 16X20 and 16X24 paintings have the same aspect ratio when obviously they shouldn't be the same.  The original looks like a 16x24 painting which should yield a 4800 X 7200 pixel image but instead is giving me the same pixels that it gave for a 16 X20 painting 2592 X 3888.  It looks much shorter and wider than the original.  I would love for it to be my issue.  Explain how that is a user problem and what I need to do to fix it please? 16x20 should be something close to 4800 X 6000 @ 300/inch.  16x 24 should be close to 4800 x 7200 pixels @300pixels/inch.

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First off forget about the pixels/inch they are totally meaningless. 

The 40D has a resolution of 3888 x 2592. Unless you stich multiple photos together or use interpolation to increase the resolution it can not give you a 4800 X 6000 photo, or a 4800 X 7200 pixel photo.

So, take the photo to encompass as much of the artwork as you can. Then using a freehand crop, crop the photo to the edge of your artwork. Whatever pixel by pixel you have left is what you have left, it is what it is and it really doesn't matter what the numbers are.

Unless you are going to be using a museum quality table size artwork scanner, or stitching multiple photos together, ignore that fact that your printer is telling you that you need 300 dpi. You don't have it, and they really don't need it. 

[jwt99]

I would love to find out that this is a problem with the software or that I somehow have changed a setting that caused this result.  But it is showing a difference in the video screen of the camera before it ever gets to the computer so I suspect it is something in the camera.  Although it is much harder to see accurately in the camera viewfinder than on the computer flatscreen

[jwt99]

In digital photo pro you set the pixels and the shows stipulate that they want 300/inch for copying purposes.  The problem is that the camera is now giving me images of 20X 16 paintings and 24 X 16 paintings of people that have the same ratio apparrently and the 16 X 20 and 16 X 24 both are looking like the people are much shorter and wider than the original paintings portray them.

[jwt99]

My tall thin wife looks short and wide in the image the camera is taking of her 16 X 24 painting.  That is a serious issue.

[TTMartin]

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@jwt99 wrote:

I would love to find out that this is a problem with the software or that I somehow have changed a setting that caused this result.  But it is showing a difference in the viewfinder of the camera before it ever gets to the computer so I suspect it is something in the camera.  Although it is much harder to see accurately in the camera viewfinder than on the computer flatscreen

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When you look through the viewfinder, you are looking through the lens. Any distortion in proportions would have to be originating with the lens, and even that is pretty unlikely.

[TTMartin]

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@jwt99 wrote:

In digital photo pro you set the pixels and the shows stipulate that they want 300/inch for copying purposes.  The problem is that the camera is now giving me images of 20X 16 paintings and 24 X 16 paintings of people that have the same ratio apparrently and the 16 X 20 and 16 X 24 both are looking like the people are much shorter and wider than the original paintings portray them.

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You only have 3888 x 2592 pixels. Any thing you set higher in DPP it is just interpolating to make it larger. It's not really giving it more resolution.

[jwt99]

I am speaking of the screen that  is on the back of the camera where you can pull up the photo you have just taken. I can see that is it off on that small screen but I can really see the error when I look at it in digial image pro

[TTMartin]

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@jwt99 wrote:

I am speaking of the screen that  is on the back of the camera where you can pull up the photo you have just taken. I can see that is it off on that small screen but I can really see the error when I look at it in digial image pro

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It is very unlikely it is a camera issue. 

It may be a computer issue (wrong resolution set in your computer for the computer monitor). 

Or a user issue using DPP. First you can only increase the resolution when you are exporting the photo in DPP, you can not do it in the trimming tool. Second be sure you have 'Lock Aspect Ratio' checked when exporting the photo, otherwise it could cause the issue you are describing.

[jwt99]

I suspect that this is most likely a camera sensor issue.  When a camera makes an image appear wider and shorter than it looks in real life is a problem with the camera in my opinion.