CS4 Save settings confusion and changing DPI

Robbo

Robbo

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Basically, when converting my raw or tiffs to Jpeg I have noticed at the bottom it say something like 'baseline (standard)'......Baseline optimized (large prints)' etc etc....

Which is the highest quality setting, as its all standard at the moment? or does it not have 'that much' effect.

Question number two, all my images are saving at 240 dpi. I am starting to get images printed for customers etc and the Digitalab recommends 300-640 (I think) dpi.

So is it just a simple case of me chaning the DPI in the image setting, as this can make the image size quite a bit bigger and didnt know if it altered the quality?

Thanks for any help.
 
The resolution of your images is fixed as it comes out of your camera - x pixels by y pixels.

If you print without changing anything, the resolution of your print will vary, depending on the print size. Let us say that the image from your camera is 3000x2000 pixels. If you print this image at 6"x4", the print resolution will be 500 ppi. If you print the same image at 30"x20", the print resolution will be 100 ppi.

Most people would say that a print resolution of 100 ppi on a print that measures 30"x20" will be perfectly acceptable, as you will not be viewing from as close as you would view a 6"x4" print. If you can live with that, then you don't need to do anything with your images prior to printing.

If you really would prefer a higher ppi resolution for your enlarged prints, then you are going to need to re-size your image to give you the print resolution that you are looking for. The problem here is that you are adding pixels that don't exist, which can have a detrimental effect on your image quality.

The choice is up to you.
 
Thanks for the dpi replys

Like I say the DPI under image size is always 240 on all of my pictures.

E.g. 4356x2387 pixels with a dpi of 240

When I change the DPI to, say, 500 this does the following....

10,827x5827 pixels 500dpi.......

By doing that I am just adding extra pixels that don't really exits to enlarge the image? Obviously causing a negative effect??
 
Robbo said:
Like I say the DPI under image size is always 240 on all of my pictures.
E.g. 4356x2387 pixels with a dpi of 240

When I change the DPI to, say, 500 this does the following....

10,827x5827 pixels 500dpi.......

By doing that I am just adding extra pixels that don't really exits to enlarge the image? Obviously causing a negative effect??
Click to expand...

To stop this, when you re-size in CS4 un-check the "Resample image" box on the Image size menu. DPI is only relevant when printing and if you import the RAW file in CS4 then just change the DPI import value at the bottom of the import page.
 
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