Q&A's

[Linda and "Toby"]

A place to post questions and answers about technique, equipment, etc.

 

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[Linda and "Toby"]

A friend of mine asked me if the image size makes a difference when you are "playing" with your photos. YES! It can make all the difference in the world.

ORIGINAL PHOTO: 8x12 @ 300 dpi (reduced to 72 dpi to post)

8x12 @ 300 dpi PHOTOSHOP> FILTER > ARTISTIC > PALETTE KNIFE (reduced to 72 dpi afterwards, to post it.)

8x12 @ 150 dpi PHOTOSHOP> FILTER > ARTISTIC > PALETTE KNIFE (reduced to 72 dpi afterwards, to post it.)

8x12 @ 72 dpi PHOTOSHOP> FILTER > ARTISTIC > PALETTE KNIFE (reduced to 72 dpi afterwards, to post it.)

 

The higher the resolution, the longer it takes to process each effect. Fortunately, while 300dpi is the ideal "print quality" on photos, "print quality" on photo manipulations/artwork is 150-180dpi! (Simply bump it up to 300 dpi prior to printing it.)

[Linda and "Toby"]

Image size and resolution can be confusing when you first start playing with post-processing software. Here's a screenshot of what this image file looked like when I first uploaded it from my camera: (CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW LARGER)

Now I obviously don't want to keep this at 59.11 inches wide x 39.556 inches high.

* WRONG WAY TO RESIZE YOUR IMAGE: If you simply change the image dimensions to say, 6"x4" and keep the resolution at 72, you'll be throwing away all those PIXELS PER INCH (aka DPI for dots per inch) to accomodate your request to shrink it down to a tiny size. (365.9K) You can never get those pixels back.

Look what happens if you try to put it back to the original size (which would look far more noticeable when printed):

CORRECT WAY: Uncheck the box that says "Resample Image" (this will uncheck all three of those boxes at once) and THEN change the resolution from 72 pixels/inch to 300 pixels per inch. This will tell you what your current "print quality" image size is. In this case it's 14.187 inches x 9.493 inches:

After changing it from 72 to 300 pixels/inch, RE-CHECK the Resample Image box (which will re-check all three boxes in that area). SAVE THIS FILE "as a COPY."

Now if you want to reduce it to 6"x4" (I would recommend saving IT as a copy, and naming it "xxx_6x4.jpg), it's at print quality. 

There's more than one way to resize an image. For me personally, this is the fastest/easiest way to do it.

 

 

[GBK]

When I adjusted the DPI to 300 it also made the numbers in the width and height go down.  Does this reflect the maximum size you can print at to get the best picture? 

[Linda and "Toby"]

Yes, to make an image that's 8"x10" @ 72dpi print quality, you would have to reduce it to about the size of a postage stamp to look good. Actually 1.92" width x 2.4" height @ 300 dpi to be exact. Here's another way to think of it....

 

Imagine sitting down at a coffee table with a box that has 414,720 teeny tiny little jewelry beads in it.

Place 576 beads on the table in a horizontal row. 

Make an identical row just below it and repeat this until you have 720 rows. (You should be completely out of beads now.)

Space the beads an equal distance apart, until you have precisely 72 beads per square inch.

You should have a rectangle design of beads on your table.

Dimension:  8" width x 10" height.

 

Keeping the beads in the same rows/columns, move them closer together until you have 300 beads per square inch.

Now you have a proportionately smaller rectangle (of the same 414,720 beads) that's so tightly packed, you can't even see the space between them.

Dimension: 1.92" width x 2.4" height

 

[GBK]

I get it, thanks, this is really important to know for printing our pictures with the best quality in mind!

[Lynda Kamrath]

Great explanation!  This I can imagine!  You are a great teacher.  Speaking of which, isn't it about time we have another google lesson?

[Linda and "Toby"]

Yes! Another hangout would be a blast! This weekend I have a lot going on, however I'm open to doing it any evening next week - or the following weekend. I'll put up a post and see if we can schedule something. 

[Jarka, Monty & Auggie]

I would love that since I missed most of the last meeting thanks to power outage!

[Diane Margetts]

Great category!! Right now, I have so many questions . . . I'm going to have to consolidate and categorize before I ask!!!

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Okay, here's a really basic (aka dumb) question....how does this relate to cropping?  I have never played with the image size, but I crop all the time.  I think I'm getting these two confused.

[Linda and "Toby"]

No question is dumb, as they say! Chances are, I've totally confused several other people as well - LOL!  

Cropping is when you take this 12"x8" @300 dpi (notice the file size is 24.7M) and crop it to a 10"x8" image.

The file size is now smaller 20.6M, but it's still "print" quality (300 dpi). You have 3000 pixels of color in the width and 2400 pixels of color in the height.

Notice what happens to the file size if I reduce it to 72 dpi. You've thrown away a ton of pixels. Now you only have 720 pixels of color in the width and 576 pixels of color in the height. This is perfect for posting on the web (because our monitors only display 72 dots per square inch), but notice the file size is now only 1.19M:

If you saved it like this and then decided that you wanted to print it later, you wouldn't leave it at 72 dpi because it would look very grainy. (Lots of white space between the dots of color.) So you would have to bring the "resolution" back up to 300 dpi. But now that you've gotten rid of so many pixels of color you would have to print it this small for the image to look as nice as your original:

I hope this makes a little more sense...

 

 

 

[GBK]

So we want to make sure that we save any picture that we want to print in the largest size and at the 300 DPI.

Then if we want to fool with it we can do a "save as copy"  and still preserve the original.  Yes?