Newbie question needs answering! :)

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staceyc

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Hi all,

This is probably a real dummies question but I have been doing some portrait shoots for friends and family and saving them onto disc for them to get printed themselves.
At the moment I have been saving them all as 5"x7" @ 400ppi. Is that ok? Or should I up the PPI, not knowing exactly how they are going to print them.
 
nigpd said:
Most printing companies I have seen ask for 300dpi, which is ample high enough quality for printing
Click to expand...

:plusone: - I use 300 pdi for printing. I tend to crop to 8x10 but thats just my preference
 
I do 300 dpi too, and often take the images up to 18" x 12" - no visible pixellation at all
hth :)
 
I ahve thousands of pics as 7x5 and 300 dpi I can print A4 or A3 without cropping again or anyhtign else...
 
KIPAX said:
I ahve thousands of pics as 7x5 and 300 dpi I can print A4 or A3 without cropping again or anyhtign else...
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Newbie to printing but printing a 7x5 to A4 or A3 do you not get image distortion? i.e. stretched image? :thinking:
 
Yes, you would if you do not crop to the print size required, it never ceases to amaze me that people say " I have a file/neg from my camera and I want a 6x4, 7x5, 10x8, 16x12, 20x16 print from the same file/neg etc but I don't want to lose anything". As a test create a canvas at say 12x8inches and fill it with grey, then create another new canvas at 10x8inches and fill it with red now drag that 10 x 8 onto the 12x8 canvas and lo and behold you have lost two inches but unfortunately you have taken the picture with the most important people/objects at the extreme ends of the pic....so what do you do now? There are ways and means around it but why not take the pic with options for proper print sizes, it's OK if you are printing yourself on your home inkjet printer, you can print whatever size takes your fancy and cut it down but you won't find a frame for it, and then with your non standard sized file you trip along to a photo lab and are astounded that they don't offer a print size to suit your file....

Rant finished

Joan
 
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I wasn't aware that I was advertising
 
photoimaging said:
Yes, you would if you do not crop to the print size required,

---8<------- snip -----

Rant finished

Joan
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Try debating without ranting.. you will give yoursdelf a heart attack.. its also very childish of you


So Joan.. how much picture will you lose on a 7x5 printing at a4 or a3 ? given that they are alomst bar a few pixels the same crop?

My answer stays as above..
 
Why not simply save them as tiffs in whatever size the camera produces?

I mean simply save the whole fimle to DVD it IS that simple then the person can have it cripped as they like.
 
Last edited:
Here's some examples of cropping.

Original from a D300

original5.jpg


7x5 crop

7x5_crop.jpg


8x6 crop

8x6_crop.jpg


10x8 crop

10x8_crop.jpg


12x10 crop

12x10_crop.jpg


A3 crop

A3_crop.jpg


the original will print at standard print sizes of 6x4, 7.5x5, 9x6, 12x8, 15x10 etc with no cropping.
 
Unless I need the image to be say 10x8 for 'artistic reasons' I always supply the image as 3:2 (so 6x4, 9x6 etc...) so that customers can easily print them to standard sizes. I just know that id I sent them over all different then they would come back to me wondering why the print looks rubbish!!
 
cambsno said:
Unless I need the image to be say 10x8 for 'artistic reasons' I always supply the image as 3:2 (so 6x4, 9x6 etc...) so that customers can easily print them to standard sizes. I just know that id I sent them over all different then they would come back to me wondering why the print looks rubbish!!
Click to expand...

Your saying any print not 3:2 ratio looks rubbish? or your saying your pictures look rubbish at anyhting oher than 3:2

And how does any of this help the OP who uses 7x5?
 
staceyc said:
Hi all,

This is probably a real dummies question but I have been doing some portrait shoots for friends and family and saving them onto disc for them to get printed themselves.
At the moment I have been saving them all as 5"x7" @ 400ppi. Is that ok? Or should I up the PPI, not knowing exactly how they are going to print them.
Click to expand...

Stacey, I think the only way around your problem would be to leave them at the ratio the camera produces (3x2) in my case and do not crop in too tight when taking the shot....If you provide 5x7 and crop in tight you may have some issues if they then want to print at 3x2.

Or better still ask them what ratio they would like and shoot/crop to their needs
 
KIPAX said:
Your saying any print not 3:2 ratio looks rubbish? or your saying your pictures look rubbish at anyhting oher than 3:2

And how does any of this help the OP who uses 7x5?
Click to expand...

No, what I mean is that if I size a pic up for 10x8 and customer goes to Tesco and wants a 6x4 print, then it will not work - they will need to lose part of the top/bottom of image to make a 6x4.

Of course this is help to OP - if they want to just print to 7x5 then fine, but if they supply a 7x5 and customer prints a different size then it could cause problems.
 
Just stick copy the whole file direct to DVD and let them decide what they want !
 
KIPAX said:
Pointless for the OP who has his saved at 7x5 and does not answer my question re 7x5 as a4 and a3 in rebuke to your little rant...
Click to expand...

Perhaps if I had added a smiley to the end of the post you would have read it in the way it was written..

The examples are to show how much crops from an original at different sizes as so many people have problems understanding crops that's all.
 
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