300 dpi????

[Foxyredhead]

Hello all! New to the site and have a couple of questions. First off I am just starting off in photography so I have little to zero experience. My first question is that I had a potential future client ask me if her images would be 300 dpi? I tried to google this and see what it is and everything I am reading is like a foreign language for me. I really need someone to bring it down to the simplest form as possible lol...also I have been playing around and edited some photos I have taken through Picnik. Am I even able to make this 300 dpi through Picnik? Sorry for silly questions I am just trying to start from scratch.

Thanks in advance everyone!!!

 

[nickzou]

Ummm... If Picnik is worth a damn, when you set up your print document with it, there should be an option for 300dpi printing.

 

[Vtec44]

DPI=dots per inch, typically refers to the print density. Generally the higher the density, the more details and colors your printed image will have.

 

[Ballistics]

Why are you taking on clients in a field you have zero experience in?

 

[LightSpeed]

 

[thereyougo!]

Here we go again! OP if you don't know what 300dpi means or what difference it makes you're not ready to charge for your services. 300dpi is seen as minimum standard for quality prints. As your dpi goes up, the maximum non interpolated size of your media goes down. Try printing at 72dpi and quality will be pretty poor. Photoshop and Lightroom defaults at 240.

 

[ph0enix]

Here we go again! OP if you don't know what 300dpi means or what difference it makes you're not ready to charge for your services. 300dpi is seen as minimum standard for quality prints. As your dpi goes up, the maximum non interpolated size of your media goes down. Try printing at 72dpi and quality will be pretty poor. Photoshop and Lightroom defaults at 240.

I'm sure the OP's head is smoking right about now

 

[o hey tyler]

Why are you taking on clients in a field you have zero experience in?

Quooooooteeeeeed foooooooooor truuuuuuuuuuuth

 

[KmH]

:banghead: :gah: DPI and PPI Explained – Andrew Dacey Photography

Digital images have PIXELS per inch (PPI), not DOTS per inch (DPI). Like Vtec44 mentioned DPI is an indicator of printer resolution.

Pixels are square or rectangular. Dots are round.

It takes multiple dots to render a single pixel because the limited number of printer colors have to be mixed to produce all the different tones in a scene. A JPEG can have a maximum of 16,777,216 colors, though few of them have that many.

It is likely someone told the client that all prints need to be made at 300 dpi, a notion that persists. No doubt, the more resolution a print has the better, but as prints get larger they are viewed from further away allowing for less resolution. Billboard size images are often printed at 10 PPI or less.

 

[Foxyredhead]

I am doing them for free for practice. Thanks for asking! Geeze!

 

[Foxyredhead]

Ya know I am really glad I became a new member of a forum to get some help and information. Maybe you all should ask before judging someone. Thanks for those who actually answered and helped me and screw the rest of you that were assholes! Im leaving as quickly as I joined!

 

[jowensphoto]

Oooooh lord.

 

[matthewo]

Is this your first internet forum?

 

[thereyougo!]

I am doing them for free for practice. Thanks for asking! Geeze!

Consider this: you do the 'gig' for free. A few years down the line, after you have gained experience you pitch for a product shoot and your prospective client sees your first work. For arguments sake lets say they don't turn out well. If I was the client I'd not take you on.

Why? After all they were just for practise and you didn't get paid. The reason is simple: you either have no pride in your work or think you're better than you are. Neither of these qualities get you hired. Only take on any kind of work when you're already good enough to be paid for it.

Think very carefully before you do a job pro bono. It rarely does you too many favours. If you don't have justified faith in yourself (and being a newbie means you're automatically not justified) you'll not command and deserve good money. Never hand over to a client sub-par work. It stays on your record. Wait til your ready. The fact that it's free means nothing. Practise is fine. I'm a musician. I'd never hand over sub par practise session recordings to be pressed on to CD for sale or for free. Once it's out there you can't take it back

 

[KmH]

Ya know I am really glad I became a new member of a forum to get some help and information. Maybe you all should ask before judging someone. Thanks for those who actually answered and helped me and screw the rest of you that were assholes! Im leaving as quickly as I joined!

Welcome to the real world.