The event photographs looked excellent on a laptop. On the lobby screen they are soft, oddly cropped, and somebody's head is cut off. Nothing went wrong at the shoot — the images were made for one shape and are being shown in another.
The takeaway up front: a photograph has one aspect ratio and a screen has a different one, and something has to give. Either the image is letterboxed, or it is cropped, or it is stretched. Knowing which of the three is happening explains almost every "why does this look wrong" on a display.
The aspect problem, concretely
Most cameras produce 3:2. Most screens are 16:9. Those are not close.
Fitting a 3:2 photograph into a 16:9 frame means:
- Letterbox — bars down the sides. Nothing lost, but it looks unfinished on a lobby display.
- Crop to fill — roughly 11% off the top and bottom. This is where heads get cut, because the photographer composed for the full frame.
- Stretch — never acceptable, and startlingly common on cheap signage players that default to it.
Vertical images on a horizontal screen are worse: a 2:3 portrait in a 16:9 frame shows the picture across about a third of the width with two thirds empty.
| Source | Display | What happens by default |
|---|---|---|
| 3:2 photo | 16:9 screen | ~11% cropped top and bottom |
| 4:3 photo | 16:9 screen | ~25% cropped |
| 2:3 portrait | 16:9 screen | Massive empty side bars |
| 16:9 export | 16:9 screen | Fits exactly |
| 3:2 photo | 32:9 ultrawide | Half the image gone |
The ultrawide row is why video walls need their own export. Our resolution guide covers the arithmetic in general, and dual-monitor setups show the same problem at a smaller scale.
Resolution: what large screens actually need
A common misconception is that a big screen needs an enormous file. What matters is pixels relative to viewing distance.
- A 4K display (3840×2160) needs an image at least 3840 pixels wide after cropping. That last part is what catches people out: crop a 6000-pixel-wide photo to 16:9 and then to a detail, and you can be under 3840 without noticing.
- A lobby screen viewed from three metres is far more forgiving than a monitor at arm's length. Softness that is obvious on a desk disappears across a room.
- A video wall may be several displays wide and needs a genuinely large source, or it will upscale visibly.
Never upscale to fill. Enlarging a 1920-wide image to 3840 does not add detail; it adds softness and, with some players, halos. If the source is not big enough, use it smaller or use a different image.
Compression, and why the gallery version fails
Client galleries usually serve images optimised for fast web viewing — resized and compressed. Fine on a phone. On a 4K screen the compression artefacts around high-contrast edges become visible, and there is no way back.
Always take the full-resolution originals for anything going on a display, and export from those. This is a request to make of your photographer before the shoot, because it is a different delivery, not a different edit.
Colour, briefly
Two things make screen images look flat or wrong:
Colour space. Files in Adobe RGB shown on a device expecting sRGB look desaturated. For screens, export sRGB unless you know the whole chain is colour-managed — signage players almost never are.
Brightness. A lobby screen in daylight is competing with a window. Images that look correct on a calibrated monitor can read as murky there. For bright environments, slightly lighter exports with a little more contrast survive better.
What to ask for before the shoot
This is the part that costs nothing beforehand and is unfixable afterwards. Three requests:
- Loose framing on the key moments, so there is room to crop to 16:9, 1:1 and 9:16 without losing the subject.
- True vertical versions of a handful of frames — actually shot vertically, not a horizontal crop.
- Full-resolution originals delivered separately from the viewing gallery.
Any event photographer will do all three if told. A supplier who covers corporate events routinely will have been asked before — in the DC, Maryland and Virginia market that means someone whose ordinary work is conferences and galas rather than social occasions; Event Photojournalism covers conferences, galas, award ceremonies and headshots across Washington DC and Northern Virginia, and it is a thirty-second conversation at booking rather than a problem at display time.
A working export recipe
For a standard 4K landscape display:
- Dimensions: 3840×2160, cropped not stretched.
- Format: JPEG, quality 85–90. Higher is wasted; lower shows artefacts at size.
- Colour: sRGB.
- Sharpening: a little, applied after resizing, not before.
- Check it on the actual screen before the day. Displays vary more than you expect, and five minutes here prevents the whole problem.
For a portrait screen, 2160×3840 from a genuinely vertical frame. For a video wall, ask the installer for the exact pixel dimensions — they are rarely a standard resolution.
Frequently asked questions
Why do the photos look soft on our lobby screen? Most likely upscaling — the source is smaller than the display after cropping. Check the pixel width of the cropped file against the screen's native resolution.
Can I just use the gallery download? For a small screen, usually. For 4K or a video wall, no — take the full-resolution originals.
Why are heads cut off? A 3:2 photograph cropped to 16:9 loses about 11% top and bottom. Ask for loose framing, or crop by hand rather than letting the player do it.
Is 4K worth it for a lobby display? At normal viewing distances, often not noticeable. Getting the aspect ratio and the brightness right matters far more than pixel count.
How do I stop the player stretching images? Set the scaling mode to "fit" or "fill" rather than "stretch", and supply images already at the display's aspect ratio so the question does not arise.
Match the aspect ratio at export, never upscale, and ask for loose framing and full-resolution originals before the shoot. Those three habits fix almost every screen problem. For more on getting images to look right at any size, browse the resolution and display guides at Screensflare.
