Never cut the print
The National Archives advises against cutting or trimming original photographs. Crop a digital copy instead, and keep the full, untouched scan as your master file. A crop that seems right today may cut out someone another relative wants to see later.
How much room to leave
- Leave some space above the head. A slight lift or tilt needs somewhere to go.
- Include the shoulders for a head turn, so the neck and collar do not have to be invented.
- Include both hands, with space around them, if you hope for a gesture in a ten-second film. Gestures are never guaranteed.
- Avoid cutting through the chin, ears, or hairline. Edges that slice a face invite the model to guess what is missing.
- You do not need to crop to a particular shape for the order. Choose framing that suits the person.
Check the crop size
Most photo editors show the selection size in pixels while you crop. Enter the full image size and the crop size below. The calculator works only with the numbers you type; it does not open your photo.
Worked example: one face from a wedding group
Suppose an 8 × 10 inch wedding group scanned at 300 dpi gives a 2,400 × 3,000 pixel file. You want only the bride’s mother, who stands near the middle.
| Crop | Size | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Head and shoulders with space around them | 760 × 950 pixels | Passes. The shorter side is 760 pixels, and the crop keeps about 10 percent of the image. |
| A tight crop of the face only | 420 × 520 pixels | Too small: the shorter side is 92 pixels under the minimum. |
| The same tight crop from a 600 dpi rescan | 840 × 1,040 pixels | Passes. Doubling the scan setting doubles both sides. |
If a crop falls short, widen it a little or rescan the print at a higher setting. Enlarging the crop in an editor adds pixels but not detail.
Sources
We checked these pages on October 8, 2026 for the specific facts mentioned above. The advice is our own, and the linked pages may have changed since.
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