Image Sizing Question

[CanonSnob]

Blah blah blah, customers have an option to by digital negs from i.e. 800px max height/width. Well it's labled as being a 3.5" x 2.5" photo. Yet on my monitor it shows at 100% view, crystal clear, near 7" x 5.5" what's the deal.

I ask because I am getting requests for larger digital negs from customers, and I want to price them in accordance to what I charge for prints + $$$, since they have the digital neg and can do multiples on their own now if they wish.

I would like to give the smallest digital negs available but still meet their digital needs. 1 customer in particular is asking for a photo to use as a desktop background. If I give him what the photo is "sized" at (which under rated by 50%) I've just given him an image twice the size that he requested for a much lower rate than what I should have charge. Yet if it is just my computer that shows it better (I use top of the line equipment for all my imaging work, superior to the average joe, my customer) than I have not delivered what I said I was going to and have an annoyed and possibly lost future business with the customer.

I hope that makes sense. Please respond soon, as I have to get back to a couple customers in a timely manner with a response to their inquiries.

 

[Flash Harry]

your supplying files around 92ppi which makes your 800px hi/wide 7 inch, however I wouldn't be happy paying extra for this file unless it was printable at 300ppi, your 3.5 by 2.5 is ratio or a decent print at this size/resolution wish is neither use nor ornament to the prospective purchaser apart from on screen/web use. H

 

[Big Mike]

That right. Typical monitor resolution is 72 pixels per inch. So your 800 pixel image is quite large on the screen.

Typically, the resolution required for good prints is 300 pixels per inch...so your 800 pixel image is only good for a 2.6 inch print.

If you are selling them the 'digital negative'...one would assume that it would be at or close to the native resolution that it was from the camera. Which would certainly be more than 800 pixels (on either side).

 

[CanonSnob]

You can see how I've set up my rates related to the issue at my website (below) It's under info>rate & services. Thanks, I knew I was missing something, ppi would be what would do that.

That aslo brings up another question then. I could sell digital copies as well (never any bigger than a monitor... ~18 x 21) but keep the ppi down so that they wont make for good prints. That sound right?

 

[Big Mike]

That aslo brings up another question then. I could sell digital copies as well (never any bigger than a monitor... ~18 x 21) but keep the ppi down so that they wont make for good prints. That sound right?

You could do that...but one problem is that a lot of people don't know what resolution they need...so it won't stop them from trying to print.

If course, when they do try to print a low resolution file...it will look like crap...and who do you think will get the blame? They will blame you before themselves.

This is one reason why many pros don't give/sell files at all. Because even a high resolution image can be printed poorly.

As for selling low resolution images...if that works for you, then go for it...just make it clear to the clients what they are good for. Or maybe you could only sell high rez images and people will have to pay for that.

 

[CanonSnob]

I have section for "Digital Copies" labled "...Web Use Only At 72ppi [Not Recomneded For Printing]

and right under it in my pricing list I have "Digital Negatives" (priced more than 2Xs as much) labled "...Will Be 300ppi [Optimum Printing Resolution]

is there anyway to keep the consumer from then just dropping that file into PS and bumping up the ppi to print it at 300?

 

[Big Mike]

is there anyway to keep the consumer from then just dropping that file into PS and bumping up the ppi to print it at 300?

You can't stop them from doing that...but if they do, the results won't be as good as the original high rez image....because photoshop will have to invent/make up the extra pixels.

I still think it might be best to forget about selling the low res files and only sell the high. Eliminate the confusion.

 

[Flash Harry]

sell both, web use at 72ppi, print use 300ppi, stipulate license terms for both if you like, but definitely for the web ones, much the same as an image library/stockfoto firm will do. H

 

[elsaspet]

Your site is good, but you need to ditch the blah blah blah client attitude.
But to answer you question, it's all about what you can resonably charge for the services in the area you provide to. It's like photo math bigtime.
Your work is amazing. But you are too spread out. You need to concentrate. Also the low end is become a breeding pool of piranah. If you put yourself in that pool, you will be eaten. End of story. Your a great photographer. No reason to give it away.
I'm amazed at the influx of photographers who have no idea what they are doing. You are not one of those photographers so you need to seperate yourself. The way you do that is in price.

 

[Sark]

It seems to me that too much importance is being put on the ppi. It is the number of pixels in an image that determines its potential use. The ppi is just a tag stored with the image file. It tells the printer how many pixels you want in each inch of your image. The greater the number, the smaller the print and the better the quality. 300ppi is required for the best print output.
A PC’s monitor does not read an images ppi. You could set it to 3ppi, or 3000ppi and it would display on screen exactly the same. Its displayed size is only determined by the number of pixels in the image and the monitors resolution (which is commonly 72dpi, or 96dpi).

As already stated, changing an images ppi is easy. There’s plenty of freeware that will do this on the most basic PC. In fact, any high street print shop will do this for you. Just tell them what size print is wanted and they can adjust in their software just as you do in Photoshop. The ppi will change accordingly.

Personally, if I wanted to offer various options, I would be selling by size (number of pixels in the image). For example...

Images up to 800 X 600 pixels for web display. These would be useless for print output.

Images up to 1600 X 1200 pixels. These would be printable at around 6 X 4 inches, or slightly higher at lower quality. They would also display at full screen on the largest monitor the average user is likely to own.

Finally, images at the cameras full native resolution. These could be used for larger high quality prints.

Because not all your customers will have any knowledge of image resolution. Set the ppi for all options to 300ppi. This will have no effect on displayed images, but ensure printed images were of an acceptable quality. The size of the images your customers have printed will be determined by the option they choose.

From looking at your site, apart from the issue over ppi, it seems you are already more or less doing this.

The bottom line is, you cannot restrict a customer from printing the supplied images. You can only control the potential size of those prints.

Sark

PS...Just checked out your portfolio. Some great images and reasonable rates. I wish you were in the UK, I'd use you to shoot my nieces portfolio, she's hoping to do some modeling. The cheapest I can find near me offering good quality work wants the equivelent of $300 for a 2 hour shoot. This includes just the low res images on CD. Not sure if they're expensive, or your cheap