Preset for cropping 3:2 to 4:3 for both landscape and portrait orientation

Software darktable
1

I would like to transform my 3:2 aspect ratio photos into 4:3 aspect ratio by cropping out two edges of the photos. I would like to make a preset or style that is able to do that for both landscape and portrait orientation photos, but I cannot figure out how.

To illustrate the issue, I open a 3:2 photo (landscape orientation) in darktable. In the crop module, I set aspect to “4:3, VGA, TV 1.33”, set the left margin to 5.52%, and right margin to 5.52%. I save this as a crop module preset or a new style named “3:2 to 4:3”. The problem appears when I apply the preset or style to a photo that has portrait orientation. With a portrait orientation photo, the preset or style would crop all four edges of the photo, which is much more than necessary to get a four thirds aspect ratio. All that is needed is to crop the top and bottom edges of the photo, but darktable crops the left and right too. What am I doing wrong?

Darktable version is 5.0.1.

2

Wouldn’t you need two separate presets based on vertical or horizontal orientation.

On a side note DT 5.4 is released with some cool updates if your system can handle the upgrade.

4 Likes
3

I would need to have two presets? One for photos with vertical orientation and another one for photos with horizontal orientation? That is surprising.

4

I would have thought that was expected since you are playing around with specific left and right margin percentages. If it was just the shape I would expect one preset would work. But having two presets is not a big burden.