Images Resizing

[Ilaria_P]

Hi everyone,

I am new here and this is my first post and I have a few questions regarding images sizing...hope someone can help...

I photograph Weddings and Family portraits.

I'm all confused about high resolution photos, I shoot in RAW and use Lightroom where I do all of my editing.

I used my first camera up to today which is a Canon 1100D and just upgraded to a 6D which arrived today and I cant wait to use it!


- what is the best size for e.g. facebook/web?

- what size do you give to clients for printing?

Some of my images taken with the 1100D at ISO 1600 are very noisy...does it mean I cannot print them?

Thanks to anyone who will reply to me...and I hope the questions are not too silly!

 

[Digifrog]

Hi Llaria & welcome to TP

For me, the best size for web is around 800px on the long side. As for clients, I would give them the native size at the very least, or rounded off to the nearest dimension (12"X8" for example). They then have the choice of having larger sizes done at their nearest bespoke printers (not Jessops or Tesco's). Alternatively you can resize (enlarge) the image yourself in Lr, say 20"x16" for example and present that. Steer clear of jpeg files and print from TIFFs where possible.

As for noisy images, it depends whether you want that noise as an artistic element (B&W images only). Noise in colour images is widely unpopular and I would not print them myself.

I'm sure others will have a different approach but I hope this helps.

Rgds

 

[Ilaria_P]

Hi Digifrog and thanks for your reply...

The noise in the images I mentioned is not artistic at all...its purely because of poor quality..can I put that down to shooting at ISO 1600 on a 1100D with a kit lens (18-55mm)?

I saved my images as jpeg in LR from raw file without resizing and as my client inevitably mentioned printing at tesco (!!) I tried to go on their online printing website and select to print (I wanted to see up to what size it would allow me to print keeping excellent quality) but the images were marked as low resolution...I dont understand!

i will try this evening in the sizes you mentioned and in TIFF format, thank you!

 

[jon ryan]

Hi Ilaria,

There are some good noise reduction programmes around, and a pretty good one built into Lightroom. This can work wonders as long as you don't overdo it and get the dreaded 'plastic' look.

 

[Digifrog]

Hi Digifrog and thanks for your reply...

The noise in the images I mentioned is not artistic at all...its purely because of poor quality..can I put that down to shooting at ISO 1600 on a 1100D with a kit lens (18-55mm)?

I saved my images as jpeg in LR from raw file without resizing and as my client inevitably mentioned printing at tesco (!!) I tried to go on their online printing website and select to print (I wanted to see up to what size it would allow me to print keeping excellent quality) but the images were marked as low resolution...I dont understand!

i will try this evening in the sizes you mentioned and in TIFF format, thank you!

I always take the full res images to the print shop and there I choose what size I need (usually 20"x16"). If your Tesco's is saying they are low res then some setting in Lr is saving them as lo res images (I assume).

Try to find a bespoke print shop (like Bristols "Photographique"). There they'll probably have Adobe software and plug ins to resize to any size you want. A 20"x16" print costs me £4. You must take the full res image though.

I would say try not to go over iso400. This will reduce noise but will lengthen your shutter speed. The only way around this is a well lit subject, a tripod and a static subject, a fast lens (50mm f/1.8 for example - every camera bag should have one!) or a full frame camera that can easily handle 1600.

NR software is available, I prefer Dfine by Nik software.