first post/question

meathead

Hi,
I just started an account, and my question relates to the "Buy" print sizes available to a visitor.
I save Raw files, and as I worked them up for posting, I saved them as small jpegs (450-800 pixels on the longer dimension). After uploading, I noticed that the available print sizes were very small ones only.
I'm an amatuer photographer, and the only files I've worked with (for contest entries) were 100MB+ tiff files at 300ppi for 16 X 20 prints.
Do I need to upload larger files in order to facilitate larger print availability? If so, is there a preferred method for calculating pixel size on the uploads?
I'm using Photoshop CS3 with raw files from Nikon's D300 and D100.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Meathead

jfriend

meathead wrote:

Hi,
I just started an account, and my question relates to the "Buy" print sizes available to a visitor.
I save Raw files, and as I worked them up for posting, I saved them as small jpegs (450-800 pixels on the longer dimension). After uploading, I noticed that the available print sizes were very small ones only.
I'm an amatuer photographer, and the only files I've worked with (for contest entries) were 100MB+ tiff files at 300ppi for 16 X 20 prints.
Do I need to upload larger files in order to facilitate larger print availability? If so, is there a preferred method for calculating pixel size on the uploads?
I'm using Photoshop CS3 with raw files from Nikon's D300 and D100.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Meathead

You should keep all your original pixels and upload those. All you need to do is edit your RAW file and save it as a full resolution JPEG with no resampling (e.g. no upsizing or downsizing) so it has the same number of pixels as it came out of your camera with (modulo any cropping you need to do). Don't worry about ppi as Smugmug doesn't use that so it doesn't make any difference. Smugmug will take your full resolution original and produce a whole bunch of different sized display copies from that. Uploading the full resolution image will give you the maximum selection of print sizes.

gluwater

Hi Meathead,

When uploading to SmugMug for printing you'll want to upload your original resolution file. The D300 and D100 have plenty of pixels for all our print sizes so why not keep them all. If you do want to reduce the size of your files so uploading goes faster go ahead and do so but look at this help page first. http://www.smugmug.com/help/print-quality#minprintres

That page lists all the minimum resolutions for all our print sizes. Keep your files at least 1440 x 2160 and you'll be able to print at every size we offer. Also, don't worry about dpi, just worry about the pixels and in CS3 we recommend using quality level 10 on the jpg.

meathead

Thanks!
Thanks for the replies - very helpful!

meathead