.col-full {
width: 940px;
}

#main {
width: 620px;
}

Something to think about: there are still a good number of people out there with 1024px wide monitor resolutions, and your site right now is 940px in width. About the maximum you can go in overall width (.col-full) and not cause people to have to scroll horizontally is 990-1000px, which isn't much wider. You could narrow the sidebar some and then take that space for the content.

I'd really appreciate the help!

Thanks!

Have you tried the "rectangular" gallery style?

http://en.support.wordpress.com/images/gallery/#examples-of-gallery-styles

That might be do it for you. If not, can you point me to a page with an actual gallery that you'd want to modify?

It seems to me that I probably just need to turn off the CSS code that crops the images. Is this possible?

…but my own knowledge of programming is limited… therefore - I kindly request that someone more competent than myself might consider tackling this!

I'd like to request a WP plugin which handles upload and interactive cropping of images, much like:
http://www.webmotionuk.co.uk/jquery-image-upload-and-crop-for-php/

Ultimately am wanting (via a WP plugin) to be able to build pages with an arbitrary number of front-end image upload slots, with interactive image cropping functionality to ensure that the final images conform to a predefined required aspect ratio (but of course maintain highest possible quality).

(The resulting appropriately cropped images will then be further processed by an automated software - which requires each image to be of a certain aspect ratio).

#site-title {
	display: block;
}

#branding #site-title a {
	display: block;
	width:1055px;
	height:229px;
	text-indent: -9999px;
	text-alignment: left;
}

Thank you so much for all your help!

How can I make have my image header without cropping it and bringing it down a little bit so it touches the red bar?

You'll need to replace the header set on the Appearance → Header page with CSS manually.

First, upload a custom header image of the size you want to your media library and get the URL.

Then add this to your Appearance → Custom Design → CSS editor:

#header {
	padding-top: 0;
	padding-bottom: 0;
}
#branding {
	background: transparent url(YOUR_IMAGE_URL) 0 0 no-repeat;
	width: YOUR_IMAGE_WIDTH;
	height: YOUR_IMAGE_HEIGHT;
	padding: 0;
}

Replace YOUR_IMAGE_URL with the URL of the image you uploaded before. Replace YOUR_IMAGE_WIDTH with the width of that image and YOUR_IMAGE_HEIGHT with the height of that image.

Anyway, I was pretty close to the design I wanted there and now am trying to achieve something similar on this new theme.

How can I make have my image header without cropping it and bringing it down a little bit so it touches the red bar?

Thanks a lot in advance!

At least at that point we will know if the CSS upgrade would be an option or not.

I agree with you at least to a large extent, but one of the things that always bother me considerably on slideshows is when the size of the slideshow is constantly changing because all the images are different sizes either in height, width, or both. Of course perhaps that is just me, and is one of the reasons I seldom use slideshows for client photography sites where they have a lot of different size an proportion photos. If all their shots are full-frame, then ok, but if no, no slideshows, or perhaps just a few images that are the same proportions.

The theme states that "the home page images are 948 by 534."

Is there absolutely, positively no way around this? I want my home page to cycle through my portfolio images, but that size/shape is very awkward and results in chopped off heads, etc. and I can't use half of the photos I need to.

I am pretty frustrated and feel that a photography theme that crops your images is a bit counter-productive. Photographers are pretty exact in their image cropping choices. The site is http://www.HeatherLeiphart.com

Any ideas? Please?

I may end up making the whole column wider, but for now, I'm more than happy.

Good to hear! I like the way it looks so far. :)

When you get to a point where you want to make the whole column wider, just create new, wider background images and replace the image links in the relevant places you've used url(). If you run into any trouble, post the links to your resized images and I can help you out with the CSS if needed.

was able to put some time in today and your css fixes work really well. a lot to do yet, but your suggestions made the load much lighter. I may end up making the whole column wider, but for now, I'm more than happy. again, thanks, and a good weekend to you!

Michael
http://summerwriters.wordpress.com/

I was curious to know if it was possible to format a background image for the Chunk theme that ended up resembling stationary "frames" on the left and right margins of the header/menu/page space.

Do you mean you want the ripped page borders from the right and left on the current header image to continue all the way down the page?
http://summerwriters.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/headersoft11.jpg

That's doable. You'll need to create the background image yourself though. What you'll want to do is take a copy of the background image you have now and erase all of the icons in it. It's up to you whether to keep the shading in the middle, but if you keep it, make sure the gradient is horizontal and not radial or the background image will look strange repeated. The top and bottom lines for the page will need to be made to match up too.

I hope you do it! I think it will look really cool! Post back if you can get an image created.

Here is a rough example showing the kind of thing you could do using the current header image from your http://summerwriters.wordpress.com/ site:

#container {
background: url(http://summerwriters.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/headersoft11.jpg) repeat-y;
}

#header-image,
#site-title,
#site-description {
margin-left: -21px
}

#footer {
padding-bottom: 3em;
}

#menu, #widgets, #footer {
border: none;
}

Here's the site:

http://summerwriters.wordpress.com/

I was curious to know if it was possible to format a background image for the Chunk theme that ended up resembling stationary "frames" on the left and right margins of the header/menu/page space. I've fooled around with photoshopping whitespace into the background image but (given the variety of displays that the site might be viewed on) it seems unlikely that I can stabilize the image so that the header/menu/page space won't overlap. Any ideas on how one might do this (if it is, indeed, do-able)?

Thanks in advance for any input!

If you keep uploading oversized non-optimized images (1) you will be wasting your space allocation and (2) bringing the cropper into play automatically means there is a loss of image quality.

I just want my own header that I had made for me by a friend.

That's doesn't require an upgrade of any kind. Provided the image is the correct dimensions go here > Appearance > Header and upload the image. If it's not the correct dimensions then resize it offline to the correct dimensions and then upload the image.
Ten Free Online Image Compression and Optimization Programs

as long as the content is pushed to the left so you could see the image.

If you intend to move anything at all around on any theme you have to have CSS editing skills. http://en.support.wordpress.com/custom-design/
You may wish to request a refund > Available Upgrades > Refunds

Your theme is a premium theme and we Volunteers answering questions on this forum have no knowledge of how they are designed to operate. When you purchased your premium theme what came with that purchase was support directly from the theme designer in the Premium Theme Support Forum. There is a link for the specific Premium Theme support forum under Appearance -> Themes in your blog’s Dashboard

I feel dumb for buying the upgrade when I'm so confused, but I want my site to be different!