Printing photos

donkeymusic

donkeymusic

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Carlo
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Hello,

Been looking at printing some photos this evening.

Now my printer was playing up so though i would get some printed at local shop just to see how they came out.

now if i was to print at 5x7, do i just take the original and print it or do i need to resize to the 5x7?

Also when cropping images, that are not a standard size, whats the best way to print them? dont want to take prints and get them cropped and miss parts of the photo.

Any help is much appreciated.

thanks
 
I would crop to your required size 1st before printing........ The cropping done in-house by the printers can vary from printer to printer and even within the same print company.
Some will lose the top, some lose the bottom and some lose a bit of both top and bottom (or the sides depending on original)
 
What software are you using?

Certainly best to resize properly before you send to print.
 
Most print shops will only produce standard size prints as you say. So if you have unusual size crops then I would crop to the image format you want then past that into a standard size. This way the printer will think it's a standard size and print it without trying to do some funny crop on the image.
 
ALWAYS crop yourself. Otherwise a machine will decide which bit of your photo you don't want!

If I want a 10x7 for example for a funny frame I create the correct sized canvas for that supplier so Aldi would be a 10x8 and just place it in so I have a white band down one side that I can guillotine off. For 7x5 (which is a standard size with most labs) create a 7x5 crop box and move it around your image till you are happy.
 
excellent,i had been doing that but just wanted to make sure i wasnt jeopardising the images.

print images at 300dpi?

thanks
 
300dpi is more than enough.

Bear in mind that the processor magnifies the image by about 3% so even with an accurately cropped image you'll end up losing a bit round the edges with the print.
 
Whenever I'm printing (whether I'm doing it myself or having somebody else do it), I always crop to the appropriate ratio and resize to the appropriate print dimensions (with a 1mm bleed) @ 300dpi or 240dpi (my dye-subs use a native resolution of 240dpi).
 
The Sony A550 produces 4592 x 3056 pixel largest images, which equates to approximately 15 x 10 inch at 300dpi.
 
photon said:
The Sony A550 produces 4592 x 3056 pixel largest images, which equates to approximately 15 x 10 inch at 300dpi.
Click to expand...

get slightly confused here, if i wanted to print larger than 15 x 10" would the image then become pixelated?
 
donkeymusic said:
get slightly confused here, if i wanted to print larger than 15 x 10" would the image then become pixelated?
Click to expand...

Nope, if you printed at 30x20 then the image would still be 150dpi.... Can you see THAT small? 60x40 would be 75dpi, just on the border of being visible without getting very close.
 
donkeymusic said:
so only up close would it look pixelated?
Click to expand...

Exactly. It's like comparing two 1080HD TVs. If you've got a 24" 1080HD, you can sit about 18" away from it and not really notice pixelation in your images.

If you've got a 60" 1080HD, you would definitely notice pixelation at that distance.

The same principle applies to prints. Look at billboards on the side of the road. When you're driving down the motorway, photographs look nice and sharp. If you stood up close and personal, you'd see dots the size of golf balls.
 
donkeymusic said:
so only up close would it look pixelated?
Click to expand...

Yes, it you look up close at an advertising hoarding it will look pixelated but you don't tend to. The point it that the higher the dpi the closer you can get without seeing the dots but I think 72dpi is fine for reading distance so anything more is a bonus.

EDIT: Spooky!
 
Kaouthia said:
They don't, because DPI is a printing concept.
Click to expand...


THat's why when you set resolution for a digital image it's measured in PPI. DPI is the actual output of your printer and has no real bearing on what resolution you send your image to the printer.
 
cowasaki said:
Well my sensor is 35x24mm approx so that would be about 3000 dpi on the sensor.....

The DPI is just dependent on how big you display it.
Click to expand...

Not sure I understand this?

The ppi of an image is not related to the size of the digital image in any way. The only size that matters is the total number of pixels and that is not related to the physical sze of the sensor either.

The dpi can be the screen resolution of your monitor, the print output of your printer or scanner.

PPI gives a measurement of final output to print. If you have 3000 pixels x 2400 pixels and you print at 300ppi you get a 10x8 image.

You can have the same image set to print at 3000ppi and you'll get a 1"x.08" image! So the ppi only sets the physical print size - nothing else.
 
EOS_JD said:
Not sure I understand this?

The ppi of an image is not related to the size of the digital image in any way. The only size that matters is the total number of pixels and that is not related to the physical sze of the sensor either.

The dpi can be the screen resolution of your monitor, the print output of your printer or scanner.

PPI gives a measurement of final output to print. If you have 3000 pixels x 2000 pixels and you print at 300ppi you get a 10x8 image.

You can have the same image set to print at 3000ppi and you'll get a 1"x.08" image! So the ppi only sets the physical print size - nothing else.
Click to expand...

The first line was me being jokingly facetious sorry I could have made that more obvious! I was joking that on the tiny sensor it became a ridiculous figure! I clearly understand it as I explained it in a later post !
 
donkeymusic said:
so only up close would it look pixelated?
Click to expand...

If you are printing a hige image, I would probably advise a little interpolation. Yes you can print at 75ppi and yes close up it will look pixelated but by keeping to around 150ppi you should reduce that.

large billboard images are printed at very low ppi values - less than 10 in some cases but our images 9even large ones) will generally be viewd closer. In a home you may stand back to view a large image but chances are it will also be viewed closer than an image displayed in a gallery.

It's all down to what you are printing and for who.
 
cowasaki said:
The first line was me being jokingly facetious sorry I could have made that more obvious! I was joking that on the tiny sensor it became a ridiculous figure! I clearly understand it as I explained it in a later post !
Click to expand...


Yes but you (and many others) are still confusingly using dpi instead of ppi. They are clearly two very different measurements - one of pixels the other of physical dots.
 
so if i wanted to get a canvas print done from a photo, how would i send this to the printers?
 
EOS_JD said:
Yes but you (and many others) are still confusingly using dpi instead of ppi. They are clearly two very different measurements - one of pixels the other of physical dots.
Click to expand...

No I do understand the difference but it a lot of situations they blur. What is a pixel if it is not a dot (yes it is 3 dots but you cant actually see that small)
 
donkeymusic said:
so if i wanted to get a canvas print done from a photo, how would i send this to the printers?
Click to expand...

Ask the printer exactly what THEY want from you, that way it will be correct for them and you get exactly what you expect.
 
cowasaki said:
No I do understand the difference but it a lot of situations they blur. What is a pixel if it is not a dot (yes it is 3 dots but you cant actually see that small)
Click to expand...

Yes, theoretically a pixel is a square of colour, although due to current technological limitations of TVs & monitors, that pixel is made up of 3 "dots". In an ideal world, each pixel would simply be a variable single solid colour. But it's the pixel as a whole group that is talked about with relation to PPI (pixels per inch), which is the image detail that is being printed.

So, if you had a monitor that was 90PPI (PIXELS per inch) you could argue that the monitor was 270DPI (DOTS per inch, 90 each red, green and blue). If a monitor were capable of producing real solid colours with a single "dot" per pixel, then it would truly be 90DPI.

Printers work on a similar principle (although marketing can get in the way of accurate numbers).

Something like a dye-sub actually does produce a vast range of tones due to the way it prints, each "dot" is a solid block of colour made up by compositing different amounts of CMYK colour on top of each other to produce a final result.

Ink jet printers don't layer their inks on top of each other like this, they're more akin to monitors in that they have differently coloured (extremely tiny) dots all parked next to each other on your paper to give the illusion of a full range of colours.

This is explains why people can get better, sharper results from 240dpi dye-sub printers than 300dpi inkjet printers. To get a similar amount of detail and tone to a 240dpi dye-sub print (bearing in mind that each "dot" on a dye sub can be any colour), an inkjet would need to print about 1000dpi (as each group of dots is made from multiple dots of ink).
 
EOS_JD said:
If you have 3000 pixels x 2000 pixels and you print at 300ppi you get a 10x8 image.
Click to expand...

Actually if you print a 3000x2000 px image at 300ppi, you get an image that measures 10"x6.6".

If you want an image of 10"x8" printed at 300ppi, the original image needs to be 3000x2400 pixels.
 
If you want to change the ratio of a photo without cropping portions that you want to keep you can use photoshop cs4, under edit tab use the transform tool and drag the photo then with your dimensions eg 5 in x 7 in put in the boxes use the crop tool. It will be 5x7 with nothing lost from the image...
 
further question regarding this printing of images.

if i was to crop a 5x7 photo and say it was 5x6, to print i would then copy this onto a blank 5x7 image but this would give me 1 inch border, would you then crop the final print out to pass to the client? or hand them the5x7 with the border?

thanks
 
Scarecrow said:
Actually if you print a 3000x2000 px image at 300ppi, you get an image that measures 10"x6.6".

If you want an image of 10"x8" printed at 300ppi, the original image needs to be 3000x2400 pixels.
Click to expand...

My maths : Sorry I stand corrected - too fast typing - I did mean 3000x2400
 
Kaouthia said:
Yes, theoretically a pixel is a square of colour, although due to current technological limitations of TVs & monitors, that pixel is made up of 3 "dots". In an ideal world, each pixel would simply be a variable single solid colour. But it's the pixel as a whole group that is talked about with relation to PPI (pixels per inch), which is the image detail that is being printed.

So, if you had a monitor that was 90PPI (PIXELS per inch) you could argue that the monitor was 270DPI (DOTS per inch, 90 each red, green and blue). If a monitor were capable of producing real solid colours with a single "dot" per pixel, then it would truly be 90DPI.

Printers work on a similar principle (although marketing can get in the way of accurate numbers).

Something like a dye-sub actually does produce a vast range of tones due to the way it prints, each "dot" is a solid block of colour made up by compositing different amounts of CMYK colour on top of each other to produce a final result.

Ink jet printers don't layer their inks on top of each other like this, they're more akin to monitors in that they have differently coloured (extremely tiny) dots all parked next to each other on your paper to give the illusion of a full range of colours.

This is explains why people can get better, sharper results from 240dpi dye-sub printers than 300dpi inkjet printers. To get a similar amount of detail and tone to a 240dpi dye-sub print (bearing in mind that each "dot" on a dye sub can be any colour), an inkjet would need to print about 1000dpi (as each group of dots is made from multiple dots of ink).
Click to expand...

Yes you are correct. The thing is with inkjet printers is that they do print like that - My Epson R2400 has a max dpi of 5760 x 1440!
 
cowasaki said:
No I do understand the difference but it a lot of situations they blur. What is a pixel if it is not a dot (yes it is 3 dots but you cant actually see that small)
Click to expand...

A pixel is not a physical thing. A dot is - whether that be in a printed page or a screen.
 
Edsport said:
If you want to change the ratio of a photo without cropping portions that you want to keep you can use photoshop cs4, under edit tab use the transform tool and drag the photo then with your dimensions eg 5 in x 7 in put in the boxes use the crop tool. It will be 5x7 with nothing lost from the image...
Click to expand...

By doing this you will change the whole image - squeezing it or stretching it so that it looks nothing like the image you took.

It is not possible to change the ratio of an image (keeping it looking the same) perspective) without cropping or adding pixel information.
 
donkeymusic said:
further question regarding this printing of images.

if i was to crop a 5x7 photo and say it was 5x6, to print i would then copy this onto a blank 5x7 image but this would give me 1 inch border, would you then crop the final print out to pass to the client? or hand them the5x7 with the border?

thanks
Click to expand...

I would not give an image with a border on one side but that's your choice. 5x6 ratio is not uncommon - 10x12 images are popular. Just print as a 5x6 ratio.
 
EOS_JD said:
I would not give an image with a border on one side but that's your choice. 5x6 ratio is not uncommon - 10x12 images are popular. Just print as a 5x6 ratio.
Click to expand...

maybe not the greatest example of sizing. okay say i cropped an image and it was more square so 4.5 x 5, how would you go about printing that?

thanks
 
Why do you want to do that? Set your crop to a standard size and you're done. I print images on my own printer so I can print any size. Most good labs will provide you with any image size you want.

I personally stick to 6x4, 7x5, 8x6, 8x8, 9x6, 10x7, 10x8, 10x10, 12x10, 15x10, 14x11, 16x12

Rarely do I use anything else - maybe for a panoramic I will chage it. Don't make things too complicated for yourself
 
this is what i have never understood about cropping, you see photos of all different dimensions that dont fit into regular sizes like you mentioned.

so if you had an image that need cropping from say portraits would you just add more white to get it fit a size and maybe zoom into the subject to fill more of the frame?
 
Where do you see "photos" of different sizes?

Best place to crop in in-camera! i.e. get the composition right first time!
 
EOS_JD said:
Where do you see "photos" of different sizes?

Best place to crop in in-camera! i.e. get the composition right first time!
Click to expand...

well when photos are posted in the forums they can be varied sizes, only in my opinion never actually measured them.

well thats is something i need to work on as well

appreciating your advice tonight
 
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