Printing Digital Photos

[Wayne27]

Hi, I have read a lot of threads here and find that Im still confused, perhaps someone can clear this up for me.
I have a Digital Camera and take 8 Megapixel photos and print these on an Epson R800 Inkjet. While I get what I think are good prints, after reading the info here I feel that I may be missing something.

Loading my photos into Photoshop CS2 I see that the Image resolution is 72 PPI Dimensions are say 3264 x 2448. I leave this unchanged and edit as required, when finished I print, in the print dialogue box I just tick "Scale to Fit Media" then select "Best" and this seems to print ok on whatever media I have selected eg: 6x4, 5x7 or A4 etc.

Basically What I want to know is
a) Am I losing quality by doing this.
b) Should I be changing the Resolution to force the picture to the physical size I want (without resampling)
c) Or should I be doing something completely different.

Thanks, Wayne

[DannyRaphael]

I'm far from an expert at this kind of thing, so take this for what it's worth...

I would be more inclined to resize the image (without resampling) to ~ 250-300 ppi, then crop to 8"x10" (or whatever height/width you need) in CS2 than to leave it up to the print driver.

[tlooknbill]

If the prints look fine to you and/or match to your display, it really doesn't matter.

You're only requiring your printer driver to do all the work which might slow down your printing times if doing volumn work.

Your image has enough resolution. Don't let the 72ppi confuse you. It's the pixel count heighth and width per inch that discribes the fineness of the pixel grid and how many pixel samplings were used to capture a scene. The finer the grid the more pixels fit into the same area and thus the bigger the megapixel number used to describe a camera's resolution capture.

It's the same type of grid fineness much like the percale thread count on bedsheets that an image is printed on top of. The same size image printed on a less percale sheet thread count doesn't change in size but you will start seeing the thread lines eventually because the threads must get thicker to fill the same size sheet area.

Hope I didn't confuse you even further.

[Juergen D]

Originally Posted by DannyRaphael

...then crop to 8"x10" (or whatever height/width you need)..

If for no other reason, the need for cropping would let me go with Danny's advice. And, in Photoshop Elements, I don't see the actual print resolution when using the scaled print size.

Juergen

[Britsdad]

Wayne----Although I'm no expert, if you have an image straight from your camera and the size is, as you've already said, 3264x2448 at 72 dpi you will have an image 45"x34" aprox. If you then crop the image to 6"x4" it will be 542.667dpi @ 7"x5"it will be 466.286dpi and @10"x8" it will be 306dpi, all this is worked out by PS. I would say edit your image to your satisfaction, then crop to fit whatever size you're printing. In my limited experience if you print a colour photo at no less than 150 dpi you will get a good result, no matter what size it is, but as default PS warns you if your print resolution is less than 300 dpi. Hope this is of some help.
John

[Jerryb]

hi,
You have recvd some good replies and I'll give you my view/opinions....

As far as what your currently doing with camera..
1. your not losing quality
2. i would not change camera resolution to fit your project... you want those larger resolutions so that you can have best quality and be able to print at best quality at any size.. if you don't need a resolution that big it a lot easier and better to reduce than to try to enlarge.... artificially..
3. and I can't see anything specific to change substantially your current procedures....

additional info.....
1. Like been mentioned, for the camera, the screen resolution is the number 1 factor... the larger the better quality, more details.... as far as the ppi setting don't be concerned with that... that will cause confusion.. smile...
2. changing the ppi in your camera, if it can be changed, to a higher number will not improve the quality, it will not effect the picture size resolution.. however it will eatup more of your precious camera memory!!!!
3. this link.... I think will be helpful... there a lot of good info but the reason I pick this link was it give table of picture resolution sizes for given printing picture size to get the optimum printing!! http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/abo...lscanning3.htm

4. Now i mentioned that for the camera the ppi setting doesn't mean much.. HOWEVER!!! when scanning it means a lot...!!! first.. ppi/dpi by many facturers is used internchangably although there difference... but what ever.. when scanning you do want high numbers.. typically for archival purposes at least 300 dpi/ppi setting and if your going to do some serious editing a lot of artist want 600 dpi/ppi setting.. the reason... the setting will determine the resolution size of the picture!! by getting more pixels in you have a better quality scan and also a lot of info to work with if you need to edit....

for example.. setting at 72dpi scanning.. picture will be small resolution also it will be difficult to edit it if you have some serious editing... where as at 300 or above... there a lot more pixels to work with and yo can get better printing quality for a given size printing project...

well those are my thoughts.. good luck...

Originally Posted by Wayne27

Hi, I have read a lot of threads here and find that Im still confused, perhaps someone can clear this up for me.
I have a Digital Camera and take 8 Megapixel photos and print these on an Epson R800 Inkjet. While I get what I think are good prints, after reading the info here I feel that I may be missing something.

Loading my photos into Photoshop CS2 I see that the Image resolution is 72 PPI Dimensions are say 3264 x 2448. I leave this unchanged and edit as required, when finished I print, in the print dialogue box I just tick "Scale to Fit Media" then select "Best" and this seems to print ok on whatever media I have selected eg: 6x4, 5x7 or A4 etc.

Basically What I want to know is
a) Am I losing quality by doing this.
b) Should I be changing the Resolution to force the picture to the physical size I want (without resampling)
c) Or should I be doing something completely different.

Thanks, Wayne

[Wayne27]

Thanks all, for the advice and comments, I understand a lot better. I now realise that I dont have to worry about the ppi so much and will play around with some of these suggestions. Thanks for the link Jerry it is an interesting and informative site.

[Jerryb]

hi,
thank you andyour welcome... good luck and enjoy

Originally Posted by Wayne27

Thanks all, for the advice and comments, I understand a lot better. I now realise that I dont have to worry about the ppi so much and will play around with some of these suggestions. Thanks for the link Jerry it is an interesting and informative site.

[Britsdad]

Yea good luck, and, I know it's a site about scanning, but if you have a few hours spare take a look at this, it's also an easy site and very informative to read (well I thought it was easy) http://scantips.com/
John