DPI? Fuji s5600 settings

[David M]

Hi all I`m using potoshop cs2,and taking my photos on a fuji s5600 5.1 million pixel camera in normal mode.
When I start to work on the photo`s I reduce there size to 6x4inches and set the resolution to 432dpi,when I print them out they are sharp and clear.
What I want to know is what (dpi) should I set the photos to for 6x4 shots?
When the photos are first loaded into photoshop there dpi is 72dpi,can anyone give me the settings for prints taken on a 5.1 million pixel camera at 6x4,,8x10 etc..

[mistermonday]

Image Resolution

David, your camera produces image files which are 2592 x 1944 pixels at it maximum resolution. When Photshop opens them, if the document resolution is set to 72 DPI, you should see in the Image>Image Size dialog box that the image size should be 36 x 27 inches (2792/72 ; 1844/72). If you uncheck the "Resample Image" box and change the 72 to 300, then your new image size should read 9 x 6.75 inches. Changing the resolution to 144 dpi will make your image 18 x 13.5 inches. And so on.

Photo print quality, for photo / inkjet printers is considered 300 dpi or higher. Most everyone will use 300 or 350 dpi.

You have a couple of options when you prepare your files for print.

1. With the "Resample Image" box UNchecked, you can change the dimensions of the image to 4 x 6 for example, which will change you resolution to 482 DPI. This is more than you need for an excellent print and your printer will just compress the extra info. The downside is if you are sending the file out to a commercial or big box lab, the file size will be larger than it needs to be and sometimes slows down their processors if you have a ton of images to print.

2. Other option is to set the image to the size you want to print (4x6 for example) and then check the resample box and change the resolution to 300 dpi. This will reduce the file size and still provide all of the data necessary to produce a photo quality print. HOWEVER PLEASE NOTE: this change, also called down sizing or down sampling, actually throws away pixel data. your resulting file will then only be (4 x 300 = ) 1200 Pixels x (6 x 300=) 1800 Pixels, or approx 2.1 Megapixels. SO, make sure that if you downsize for small prints that you do a Save As and save that downsized file with a modified name, keeping you original file unchanged and intact for future use.

Now let's look at the other direction. At 300 DPI, and camera image dimension of 2592 x 1944, the max image size you can have and still maintain 300 dpi is approx 8.5 x 6.5. This is a problem if you want to do a 8 x 10 print. This is where you need to Upsize or Upsample. Again in the Image>Image Size dialog box, you set the dimensions to 8 x 10 (you will have to crop your image to get that 1.2 aspect ratio because 2592/1944 = 1.333) and then check the resample box and change the resolution to 300 DPI.

Now in this case, PS enlarges you image by manuafacturing new pixels through a process called interpolation. This process tends to cause some slight softening of the image because it need can't produce a fraction of a pixel when it upsizes. Again, the same advice as above is given: Save the upsized file as a copy of the original with a modified name so that you always have your original available to work on future edits.

Regards, Murray

[David M]

Thanks,thats cleared up so many questions