"size of photo" to upload question

Peg

Hi all,
I've been reading the forum, have read smugmug's information on preparing your photos but I guess I need a little clarification, please.
I'm thinking I want to upload files so that prints can be made from them from sizes 4 x 6, 8 x 10, and 11 x 14. All sizes can be covered.
Should each photo be sized to accommodate that large 11 x 14? And if so, should each photo be around 1100 x 1400 pixels (using the 100 formula?)
Is this the target size I should aim for?
Thanks to all for any clarification.
Peg

Andy

Peg wrote:

Hi all,
I've been reading the forum, have read smugmug's information on preparing your photos but I guess I need a little clarification, please.
I'm thinking I want to upload files so that prints can be made from them from sizes 4 x 6, 8 x 10, and 11 x 14. All sizes can be covered.
Should each photo be sized to accommodate that large 11 x 14? And if so, should each photo be around 1100 x 1400 pixels (using the 100 formula?)
Is this the target size I should aim for?
Thanks to all for any clarification.
Peg

hiya peg,

there's no limit on amount of uploads, so please upload the full-size files from your digital rebel - in all their 6-megapixel glory. then, when you want to print, you can crop to the aspect-ratio you need, e.g. 4x6, or 5x7, or 8x10, etc etc.

hope this helps,

DodgeV83

Upload the highest quality picture you have. The user can select the cropping he/she wants so its not really an issue.

jfriend

And the printer will scale automatically

DodgeV83 wrote:

Upload the highest quality picture you have. The user can select the cropping he/she wants so its not really an issue.

And the print service will automatically scale the images up or down to the chosen print size and printer resolution so you don't need to worry about that at all.

Mike Lane

FWIW 24" x 36" from ezprints done with my 8.2MP 20D are excellent!

Peg

Thanks everyone.
Boy, I've sure been doing my first uploads wrong. I've been going to PS7 and resizing there and using "Save as" and sending up quite a bit smaller files.
I'll try sending up some large files now and see how that goes.

One other concern: That'll be a pretty big file that someone could just download and print off themselves, right? How can I prevent that? Would having the Pro account be the only way to keep folks from downloading??
Thanks again.
Peg

Mike Lane

Peg wrote:

Boy, I've sure been doing my first uploads wrong. I've been going to PS7 and resizing there and using "Save as" and sending up quite a bit smaller files.
I'll try sending up some large files now and see how that goes.

One other concern: That'll be a pretty big file that someone could just download and print off themselves, right? How can I prevent that? Would having the Pro account be the only way to keep folks from downloading??
Thanks again.
Peg

All accounts can limit the viewable size (someone correct me if I'm wrong here) That means that Smugmug will store a big ol' copy of your original and process it into a bunch of different sizes: Large, Medium, Thumbnail, and Tiny. You can choose to not display the Original and / or the large size if you want so all anyone would be able to download is a Medium, Thumbnail, and Tiny image ... not exactly print or steal worthy material.

Peg

What resolution do I choose?
One other question!
Do I leave the resolution at 72 or do I change that to 290 or so as if I were printing?
Thanks.
peg

jfriend

Ignore the dpi completely

Peg wrote:

One other question!
Do I leave the resolution at 72 or do I change that to 290 or so as if I were printing?
Thanks.
peg

What the pic is labelled for dpi or ppi is completely irrelevant for smugmug display or printing from smugmug, so you don't need to care what it is and you shouldn't worry about changing it.

The reason it doesn't matter to smugmug is that for display, smugmug makes reduced size images by reducing the number of pixels and browsers display those reduced pixel images on screen as they are. When pics are sent to the printer for printing, smugmug sends the highest resolution version that you uploaded and the printer then scales the pixels to match the printed resolution at the size print you ordered.

In neither of these cases does anything look at the dpi or ppi on the image, so it doesn't matter at all.

StevenV

What the pic is labelled for dpi or ppi is completely irrelevant for smugmug display or printing from smugmug, so you don't need to care what it is and you shouldn't worry about changing it.

right. see also http://dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=20776

Peg

Thanks!
I'll leave that resolution number alone from now on.
Thanks so much to everyone for your help and explanations.
Peg