Beleive it or not.. I have just switched to digital from film camera not even a year ago. Today as I was trying to get something printed online ( it gave me a preview ) it said that my resolution was too low for a 4x6 print!!!.. I shoot at "fine" on my D3000, then do some small editing and cropping... what am I or should I be doing? The image preview of this said photo was warped looking.. some insight please..
Thank in advance to all who are helping me.. I'm thinking I should shoot in RAW but have no idea of anything after that.. say if I want to edit and save then print from there. I'm frustrated now.. because I think all my photos are now no good for printing :(
Cheers to all the wonderful 365ers !
Just keep your pixel count at 300+ per inch of your print (for regular photographic prints). So, a 4x6 needs to be 1200x1800 pixels or larger. Smaller than that (easy to do if you crop) will make your shot all blocky-looking. Also, if you crop, keep the aspect ratio the same. You need to lock your crop tool so it doesn't go all distorted when you try to print.
If you shoot in raw, you HAVE to process your images in Photoshop or Lightroom or something similar. They just won't be sharp if you don't, and they'll be a bit weak in the colour department. Save your files as JPG in the sRGB colour space for regular printing.
I know that's probably already messing with your darkroom mindset, but stick with it and you'll start to enjoy it soon enough. :)
So then I shouldn't had a problem if my photo properties look like this :
dimensions:2896x1944
width 2896 pixels
height 1944 pixels
height resolution 300dpi
vertival resolution 300dpi
resolution unit 2
colour rep: sRGB
bit depth 24
Does the website let you crop... your photos ration is .67 and a 2x3 ratio is .66 it could be a built in check that 'thinks' the photo is not right for printing... crop to 2896 x 1931 and see if that works
Apparantly I am very digitaly dumb.. hmmmm.. maybe I shoudn't be cropping too too much! .. I bleeive that I was over cropping and lowering the pixels by doing so.. the above mentioned dimensions are from the original photo.. and not the cropped version which I wanted printed..
Now How would I go about that.. I seem to crop alot....and I want the resolution high enough so that i can end up printing 11x14 in the future...( say I shoot in "fine" ) .. I just have to make sure the pix don't go lower then 1424x1812?.. DOing lots of reading today.. hopefully I'm getting it !
it really depends on how you are going to use it... traditionally you would want to be around 3300 x 4200 for a print you would view up close... but if it was a well frames 11x14 behind a couch and your printer has good or great enlarging algorithums you could get away with 1400x1800 for 11x14...
Jordan and Jinx know their stuff. I'm a film person too, and appreciate the "simplicity" of it. Now I am finding myself selling images based on pixels and resolution , blah blah blah.
I dunno. I never had a problem making a huge mural print with my 6 x 7. Gotta get a grasp on this digi thing. To me, it is more restrictive and maybe less quality, but faster. Oh well.
I am actually thinking about continuing with the film for the good work, and I scan to disc non mounted 50ASA slides, which I am told translate to a higher pixel whatever count (I am told 30 megapixels) than the best DSLR out there for 8 thousand dollars.
However, I have printed up to 20x30 with a 6mp digital and it looked ok to my eye. Who knows.
Melanie, you can enlarge a print if you have cropped it too small for the print resolution. You just have to be very careful. Some people use a +10% method (upsize 10%, then upsize 10% etc until it is large enough) but in reality this method is barely better than just upsizing in one hit. When you upsize, the computer uses an algorithm to add extra pixels that weren't there. Bicubic sampling is the best option for it available in most programs, but there are better standalone programs and Photoshop plugins for it (Genuine Fractals is brilliant, as is sync1024).
Most printers use linear algorithms, which just ruin details, so it is best to size your print for the native resolution of the printer. For photographic (lab) prints, 300 pixels per inch is usually ideal. For most inkjet printers, well they vary, but 240 is common.
It is also important (though less so) to ensure your pixel count is not too high, especially with inkjet printers. Inkjet printers almost always use linear resampling and if, for example, it needs to downsize your image by 10%, they will just remove every tenth line of pixels! If you've ever had a print that looks fine on screen, but when printed has lost eyelashes or suchlike, that is probably the why of it.
Lastly, it doesn't matter what your DPI is set to - what matters is that the total number of pixels is correct for width and height. If you are printing a 6x4 at 300PPI, you just need to ensure you have 1800x1200 pixels. Only use the DPI resolution settings if you want to resize an image by physical size to get the right the number of pixels. I'm ok with numbers, so I always just resize to actual pixel counts. Incidentally, DPI and PPI are not the same thing, though people tend to use the terms interchangably.
@jinximages wow do I have lots to learn... I can upsize? You're probably laughing at me now or at least getting a chuckle.. I bought the DSLR Book for Dummies and still doesn't tell me what I need to know.. I've found some online sites which I haven't sat down and read yet to understand.. I thank you so much.. I think I understand the upsizing thing.. I just don't know where I would actually do that ( what program and where in that program... ) I believe I have Photoshop Elements...( copy from a friend.. don't know what version.. )
You can do that in Elements no problem - just go to the menu item "image" and select "resize" and type in your new dimensions or percentage. If you have to upsize more than 10%, do it in 10% increments (it will help a little). :)
@jinximages IT WORKED.. :D I did it it with the pixels on both w and h by increments of 10% then I also put in for new dimensions ( document size ).. then went to try it out on the online lab !! AWESOME!! I can't thank you enough!!!!
it has to do with colour management and work flow... nothing important at all... just a nightmare if you get into it... stick with sRGB and your colours will be 'close' enough... this has to do with if you take a picture on your screen and the colours look 'perfect' and you print it and the blues are red (a bit drastic but I hope you get my point)
@icywarm Hahaha! Or that you edit in a certain space based on the image itself, but output to a colour space dependant on the printing? You know, we'd be remiss not to mention printer profiles and soft-proofing.... ;)
@jinximages sorry to the OP... kinda hijacked this... but as to your comments... i cannot believe people thought printing on film was tough... all you needed was test strips...
@icywarm (Oh, my apologies too, Melanie - I hope you find this amusing enough to overlook it!) - I think it was just that they couldn't just "jump in" without knowing how it worked. But now people can just click stuff and see what happens, with no cost consequence. But I definitely agree that, to print well, film was very uncomplicated compared to digital!
@jinximages hey no problem at all.. lol.. actually the more I learn the better.. it's still pretty confusing to me but I'll get it soon enough.. (when I go to print and get mad).. I'm glad you guys mentioned something about it, I know what to look forward to. :) I worked in the professional custom lab business for some time a LOOOOOOONG time ago doing colour separations for print ad works.. RGB and Cyan, magenta and yellow to film.. maybe the same but different and more complicated then? I'll figure it out! :)
@melaniep There are whole books just on colour space and their uses. It's crazy, and can be very complicated. sRGB (or Satanic RGB as it is sometimes called) is designed for web use, and is not a very large gamut. Adobe RGB is wider (more colours), but monitors can't display them all (the very best can display about 98% of Adobe RGB colour space), so your screen will aproximate certain colours to display them. Then there is Prophoto RGB which is really huge, but you can't even print it all. So, you might work in one space to make use of certain colour distinctions another can't distinguish, but when you're done you have to convert to what you're printing in, or it will all go to hell! Some labs like Adobe RGB (especially certain pro labs), but all your consumer labs use sRGB. If you send the wrong one, they'll convert it, but because they're the ones converting it, you don't get final control over it. CMYK is a whole other matter, but one you need to know for printing brochures and business cards and the like! And that's just the start of it, I'm afraid to say. Fun times ahead!
@icywarm@jinximages Thanks you guys.. now onto another question.. probably a simple one at that.. but I need direction little step by little step.. I know there is tutorials for it on Youtube though because I am deaf I can't hear what's going on..
My question.. how to get a hand written signature like @vikdaddy , so that it looks the same everytime.. ?
Does Photoshop even come with a book or tutorials? LOL
I think I may have figured it out.. ( I defined it as a brush... ) but if I scan my signature .. can i define that as a brush too.. .. I guess I'll figure that out once I'm moved and my scanner is unpacked.. !
Thanks for all the help ! :) :)
@melaniep You only need to ask and I'd tell ya! I scanned it ion at work, converted it into a jpeg in photoshop and then add it as a watermark in lightroom.
@vikdaddy thanks.. the the harder way..lol.. wouldn't know how to convert it as jpeg.. but I'll figure that out too! :)
I know I've just tried it via brushes in Photoshop.. wondering if I'll be able to do the same with scanning my signature and loading as a brush.. I'd rather use only Photoshop ( all in one stop to do all... lol ) I don't know all the in and outs of all different programs out there --like lightroom? ) I hsould be able to do all in there right?
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If you shoot in raw, you HAVE to process your images in Photoshop or Lightroom or something similar. They just won't be sharp if you don't, and they'll be a bit weak in the colour department. Save your files as JPG in the sRGB colour space for regular printing.
I know that's probably already messing with your darkroom mindset, but stick with it and you'll start to enjoy it soon enough. :)
dimensions:2896x1944
width 2896 pixels
height 1944 pixels
height resolution 300dpi
vertival resolution 300dpi
resolution unit 2
colour rep: sRGB
bit depth 24
Still confused.
Now How would I go about that.. I seem to crop alot....and I want the resolution high enough so that i can end up printing 11x14 in the future...( say I shoot in "fine" ) .. I just have to make sure the pix don't go lower then 1424x1812?.. DOing lots of reading today.. hopefully I'm getting it !
@jinximages @icywarm Thank -You so much ! :D
I dunno. I never had a problem making a huge mural print with my 6 x 7. Gotta get a grasp on this digi thing. To me, it is more restrictive and maybe less quality, but faster. Oh well.
I am actually thinking about continuing with the film for the good work, and I scan to disc non mounted 50ASA slides, which I am told translate to a higher pixel whatever count (I am told 30 megapixels) than the best DSLR out there for 8 thousand dollars.
However, I have printed up to 20x30 with a 6mp digital and it looked ok to my eye. Who knows.
Most printers use linear algorithms, which just ruin details, so it is best to size your print for the native resolution of the printer. For photographic (lab) prints, 300 pixels per inch is usually ideal. For most inkjet printers, well they vary, but 240 is common.
It is also important (though less so) to ensure your pixel count is not too high, especially with inkjet printers. Inkjet printers almost always use linear resampling and if, for example, it needs to downsize your image by 10%, they will just remove every tenth line of pixels! If you've ever had a print that looks fine on screen, but when printed has lost eyelashes or suchlike, that is probably the why of it.
Lastly, it doesn't matter what your DPI is set to - what matters is that the total number of pixels is correct for width and height. If you are printing a 6x4 at 300PPI, you just need to ensure you have 1800x1200 pixels. Only use the DPI resolution settings if you want to resize an image by physical size to get the right the number of pixels. I'm ok with numbers, so I always just resize to actual pixel counts. Incidentally, DPI and PPI are not the same thing, though people tend to use the terms interchangably.
My question.. how to get a hand written signature like @vikdaddy , so that it looks the same everytime.. ?
Does Photoshop even come with a book or tutorials? LOL
Thanks for all the help ! :) :)
I know I've just tried it via brushes in Photoshop.. wondering if I'll be able to do the same with scanning my signature and loading as a brush.. I'd rather use only Photoshop ( all in one stop to do all... lol ) I don't know all the in and outs of all different programs out there --like lightroom? ) I hsould be able to do all in there right?