Need some tech guidance and pro mentoring

Someday_DreamerSomeday_Dreamer Registered Users Posts: 67 Big grins
edited February 20, 2009 in SmugMug Pro Sales Support
Hello -

First things first I am a self taught 'photo' person. Meaning I have been learning about working with digital images as I go and probably not getting it right.

The issue is I need to provide some of our images to a law firm for review for some new art--THIS IS THE VERY FIRST TIME WE WILL BE UP FOR ANYTHING

I want to make sure that the images I provide will print in larger sizes and look good without having to order a large image of each. The last thing I want is for them to choose one, order it and then have it look reallly bad when it comes in--There is no second chance with this and can't really afford to put a lot of $ into it right now. Will be investing a lot if they are interested.

Can someone please point me in the right direction on where to start with this or suggestions on how to make this go well? I saw in one post that in order to have a larger print than print size I needed to put the image on a larger 'canvas' in PS...:cry I get so lost--I thought if the measurements of the photos matched the SM recommendations all would be ok...

Truth be known I am scared to death that I will mess this up big time and the photographer will never forgive me. BTW, he doesn't know the details on this end either.

Does anyone out there have a process they use to ck and prepare for something like this...Also the first review they will do will only be by an e-file sent by email..They are too busy to look through the website, load a cd. I have already asked how to do this in another thread.

I will be eternally grateful for any and all help--
www.globaltrekk-photos.com

Comments

  • Tampa-PhotographyTampa-Photography Registered Users Posts: 50 Big grins
    edited February 20, 2009
    Resolution - Size - Distance
    I'm not sure if I really understand your question, but here's a stab at it:

    There are three factors to consider here: resolution, size, and viewing distance.

    The resolution of your final edited images will determine the maximum DPI they can be printed at (the same image will have a much higher DPI at 4 x 6 than it will at 20 x 30).

    The viewing distance (how far away people will be when they are looking at the image) will determine how high the DPI must be in order for the image not to look pixelated.

    For example - highway billboards are often printed as low as 10 DPI - because we are hundreds of feet away when looking at them, they look perfectly clear.

    The following table (pulled from an article at http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/article_pages/print_viewing_distance.html that you might want to read) lists minimum DPI for different viewing distances.

    According to the author: This is for very high contrast at optimal lighting - not your print of a photo hanging on the wall. These values could easily be halved for 'average' or poor viewing conditions<TABLE cellSpacing=2 cellPadding=3 width=247 border=1><TBODY><TR><TD>Viewing Distance (inches)</TD><TD>Resolution ppi</TD></TR><TR><TD>6</TD><TD>1145</TD></TR><TR><TD>10</TD><TD>687</TD></TR><TR><TD>24</TD><TD>286</TD></TR><TR><TD>36</TD><TD>191</TD></TR><TR><TD>60</TD><TD>115</TD></TR><TR><TD>120</TD><TD>57</TD></TR><TR><TD>600</TD><TD>11</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
    The formula is ppi = 1/((distance x 0.000291) / 2)


    A rule of thumb I have used is 300 DPI is good for viewing distances as close as 2 feet. Any closer than that and you should bump it up to 600 DPI or higher (of course it's always best to print at the highest resolution available - we're talking about maximum sizes and minimum resolutions here).

    Your editing suite should allow you to "lock" the DPI at 300 (or 600, or whatever), and then from there determine the maximum print size available at that DPI.

    Thus, your first step is to determine how your client plans to display the images.

    If they are going to put them in a lobby where people are viewing them from 6 feet away, you can get by with much lower DPI.

    Concersely if they will be in a gallery where people can stick their nose up to them, it will have to be much higher.


    Hope that helps!



    Jeff Copeland
    St Petersburg FL Photographer | Florida Beach Weddings | Commercial Photography in Tampa Bay | Small Business Marketing Blog
  • Someday_DreamerSomeday_Dreamer Registered Users Posts: 67 Big grins
    edited February 20, 2009
    Tampa-Photography wrote:
    I'm not sure if I really understand your question, but here's a stab at it:

    There are three factors to consider here: resolution, size, and viewing distance.

    The resolution of your final edited images will determine the maximum DPI they can be printed at (the same image will have a much higher DPI at 4 x 6 than it will at 20 x 30).

    The viewing distance (how far away people will be when they are looking at the image) will determine how high the DPI must be in order for the image not to look pixelated.

    For example - highway billboards are often printed as low as 10 DPI - because we are hundreds of feet away when looking at them, they look perfectly clear.

    The following table (pulled from an article at http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/article_pages/print_viewing_distance.html that you might want to read) lists minimum DPI for different viewing distances.

    According to the author: This is for very high contrast at optimal lighting - not your print of a photo hanging on the wall. These values could easily be halved for 'average' or poor viewing conditions<TABLE cellSpacing=2 cellPadding=3 width=247 border=1><TBODY><TR><TD>Viewing Distance (inches)</TD><TD>Resolution ppi</TD></TR><TR><TD>6</TD><TD>1145</TD></TR><TR><TD>10</TD><TD>687</TD></TR><TR><TD>24</TD><TD>286</TD></TR><TR><TD>36</TD><TD>191</TD></TR><TR><TD>60</TD><TD>115</TD></TR><TR><TD>120</TD><TD>57</TD></TR><TR><TD>600</TD><TD>11</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
    The formula is ppi = 1/((distance x 0.000291) / 2)


    A rule of thumb I have used is 300 DPI is good for viewing distances as close as 2 feet. Any closer than that and you should bump it up to 600 DPI or higher (of course it's always best to print at the highest resolution available - we're talking about maximum sizes and minimum resolutions here).

    Your editing suite should allow you to "lock" the DPI at 300 (or 600, or whatever), and then from there determine the maximum print size available at that DPI.

    Thus, your first step is to determine how your client plans to display the images.

    If they are going to put them in a lobby where people are viewing them from 6 feet away, you can get by with much lower DPI.

    Concersely if they will be in a gallery where people can stick their nose up to them, it will have to be much higher.


    Hope that helps!



    Jeff Copeland

    Thank you-

    That is definitely a good start for me. Which brings me to my next question-once the picture is taken...can I change/alter the DPI? If so how?

    Again--this is a good start--does anyone else have some advice..I am soooo open to anything and everything here..
    www.globaltrekk-photos.com
  • Tampa-PhotographyTampa-Photography Registered Users Posts: 50 Big grins
    edited February 20, 2009
    The resolution (and thus the max DPI) depends on the resolution (and settings) of your camera - a 10 Megapixel camera at max resolution (sometimes called the "fine" setting) will give you more resolution/DPI than a 6 megapixel camera at the same setting, and so on...and shooting in RAW gives you more resolution to work with (every time you "jpeg" an image, you lose a little resolution.

    After you have taken the image, there is no way to increase the resolution. In fact you usually lose some in the editing process...


    JC
    St Petersburg FL Photographer | Florida Beach Weddings | Commercial Photography in Tampa Bay | Small Business Marketing Blog
  • Someday_DreamerSomeday_Dreamer Registered Users Posts: 67 Big grins
    edited February 20, 2009
    Tampa-Photography wrote:
    The resolution (and thus the max DPI) depends on the resolution (and settings) of your camera - a 10 Megapixel camera at max resolution (sometimes called the "fine" setting) will give you more resolution/DPI than a 6 megapixel camera at the same setting, and so on...and shooting in RAW gives you more resolution to work with (every time you "jpeg" an image, you lose a little resolution.

    After you have taken the image, there is no way to increase the resolution. In fact you usually lose some in the editing process...


    JC

    Ok--another 'dumb' question--how do I figure DPI if I only have the photo dimensions?? Is it basic math?
    www.globaltrekk-photos.com
  • Tampa-PhotographyTampa-Photography Registered Users Posts: 50 Big grins
    edited February 20, 2009
    Use the "resize" function in PhotoShop
    St Petersburg FL Photographer | Florida Beach Weddings | Commercial Photography in Tampa Bay | Small Business Marketing Blog
  • Art ScottArt Scott Registered Users Posts: 8,959 Major grins
    edited February 20, 2009
    Here is what I do........ all my photos that are going to be put in my for sale gallery are resized in PS to 300 dpi.....this gives me an almost perfect 8x10 (with my 8mp camera and slightly smaller with my 6mp dslr)......ok resized.......do all of your photoshopping EXCEPT for sharping ( ialways use unsharp mask for my sharping, it gives way better deatail than the sharpening filter)...all is now done except for sharpening..........now go to onone software and download the trial version of genuine fractals print pro (maybe now it is just PRO), this is the best upsizing software I have ever found and I have been using it over 10yrs........with the trial version you used to get to uprez and save 20-25 files ..... also their trial version FULLY FUNCTIONAL.....every bit of it works......so what you do is simple you load a photo into it and tell it what % to uprez or just give it the dimensions you want......

    Go try it out and if 20 or 25 files and are not enuff I will work a deal to uprez to waht evey size you want .....I normally take my photos to 30 x 40 inches as that is close to the per image MB that SmugMug allows........

    To get you files to me would ....you would need to get an FTP client ...... I use SmartFTP client.....it is free for home use, but you have to keep downloading it every 30 or 60 days......but it is simple to use and works like a charm.

    Good Luck
    "Genuine Fractals was, is and will always be the best solution for enlarging digital photos." ....Vincent Versace ... ... COPYRIGHT YOUR WORK ONLINE ... ... My Website

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