Question about resizing photos for printing... (portraits.)?

Ok... I take portraits and such for people and I am trying to decide the best way to print them. Should I crop the photos to match the size I want.... Like, Picasa has an option to crop photos to fit 4x6 5x7 or 8x10... should I crop them accordingly depending on the size I want... or should I have them printed from the full size image?





I%26#039;ve only tried printing from mpix.com but i feel as though the pictures are %26#039;squashed in%26#039; to fit... also any advice on how i can get them to not print too dark. they always look great on the computer but then when i get them back from mpix they will be too dark... i dont want to turn the brightness up and it come out too bright... what should I do?
Question about resizing photos for printing... (portraits.)?
I prefer to send Mpix exactly what I want. If I want an 8x10, I crop at home and upload the 8x10 to their site. Since the ratios os 4x6, 5x7 and 8x10 (and others) are all different, I do not like leaving the decision to anyone else about where to crop. They will give you (within 99.8%) exactly what you ask for.





As far as the darkness or lightness, you need to either calibrate your monitor or just do a few sample runs and see how to mentally adjust for the difference in what you see adn what they print. I know that my monitor is a bit dark, but it%26#039;s a cheap LCD monitor and it just won%26#039;t calibrate properly. I guess I could do a simple brightness adjustment, but I%26#039;m not too far off from their print results, so I live with it.





Mpix offers a color calibration service for prints, but I never used it. I don%26#039;t want to get one thing one order and risk getting something else on the next order, so I make corrections at home until I like the print. My own printer is darn close to what I get from them.





I am not a pro, so I am not 100% critical of the final results and I guess I need to disclose that to you. I%26#039;ve always been 100% satisfied, though.
Question about resizing photos for printing... (portraits.)?
Well, I%26#039;ve heard it%26#039;s always best to do full size never crop.....you loose resolution. But I%26#039;m not a pro at this so dont listen to me lol:)


maybe the computers contrasts are too light?


idk...:)





Maybe you should lighten one have it printed and see if that helps adn if it doesnt then poop an dif it does then you can start doing that to them all:)