Please Help! Resizing and Printing Questions

[kamjharmon]

Hi All!
New to this blog and Damian Lovegrove suggested it to me. I am a newbie so go gently . My question is this: When I download my pics to my computer and bring them into photoshop, Do i need to resize them to a standard size immediatley? I am having resizing issues. I want to know if my client orders a 16x20 photo without borders, how do I resize that in photoshop CS3? The same for all other standard sizes. Will a printing company do this for me or should I do it before I send out for print. I also want to know a good printing company. I was told by a local photographer to go to Sam's Club. PLEASE help me with these resizing issues. I have been trying to figure it out for weeks. I have 2 pics right now that have to be printed. Thanks~ Angie

 

[PJL]

You don't have to "resize" the picture, per se. All you have to do is crop the picture to the appropriate ratio for the desired print -- so if you want to print to a 8x10, it's a 4:5 ratio; if you want to print to a 4x6, it's a 2:3 ratio. 16x20 falls into the 4:5 category. If your camera takes photos in the 2:3 ratio natively, then you'll need to crop a bit off the sides in order to get to 4:5.

 

[tirediron]

Straightening/leveling and sizing for print are the first two steps of my workflow. My thought process is that if I level and crop first, then I'm only working on the part of the image that I care about, whereas if I do all the work and crop last, then I may have spent time working on something that just wound up on the cutting room floor. Printing places will resize for you, but chances are you won't like their choice. Cropping the image to the final composition is a critical aspect of your workflow - otherwise the final image may be very different than you imagined it. To crop in CS3, select the crop tool (looks like an 'L' with an upsidedown 'L' beside it), enter the dimension you want the image cropped to, then use your mouse to select the area on the start in one corner and left-click and hold, dragging diagonally to the other corner. That's all there is to it.

As far as good printing companies, I have no idea of what Sam's Club is like; akin to Wal-mart I'm sure which means that they're dirt cheap, and do a half-decent job. Mpix (an on-line company) is fairly well regarded, but again, I have no experience with them.

 

[tirediron]

You don't have to "resize" the picture, per se. All you have to do is crop the picture...

Good terminology catch; thanks! :thumbup:

 

[kamjharmon]

Thanks for your reply! Without sounding completely dense. I use photoshop as I said, how and where do I put these ratio's? This is where I get so confused

 

[KmH]

Hi All!
I want to know if my client orders a 16x20 photo without borders, how do I resize that in photoshop CS3?

As mentioned you don't resize.

You may not crop either.

I depends what aspect ratio the original photo is and the aspect ratio of the print you want. You also have to consider the pixel dimensions of the photo pre-crop, and post crop.

A popular consumer print lab, Mpix.com, will not make a print of any uploaded photo that has less than 100 pixels-per-inch (PPI).

If a photo has been heavily cropped so that the remaining pixel dimensions of the photo are say 1000 x 800 pixels, the largest print Mpix would make for you is an 8x10 - 1000 pixels ÷ 100 PPI = 10 inches, and 800 pixels ÷ 100 PPI = 8 inches. For that 16x20 you want, Mpix would have to be printed at 50 PPI - 1000 pixels ÷ 50 PPI = 20" and 800 ÷ 50 PPI = 8" . mpix won't print at 99 PPI, let alone only 50 PPI.

So you have to be mindful of both the pixel dimensions, and the aspect ratio when you are preparing a photo for printing.

Note: Most DSLR cameras make photos that have a 3:2 aspect ratio. Most P&S camera's, and some DSLR's make photos that have a 4:3 aspect ratio.

4x5, 8x10 and 16x20 all have a 5:4 aspect ratio, while wallets and 5x7's have 7:5 aspect ratio.

 

[kamjharmon]

Thanks for this information. It seems discouraging though. People are wanting photos to fit into a 16x20 frame because they want it enlarged. while all of you are very knowledgeable I am still new at enlarging. It was a little hard to understand . Anyone wanna tell me in lay terms how to resize my pics? I notice in Photoshop even a 5x7 will need to have some picture lost if I try to crop to size it.

 

[kamjharmon]

Well, I have a Nikon 5100 DSLR camera. I want to print out a 16x20 picture of a gymnast I took. I went to print it out and her feet were cut off and the top of the pic was cut off. So if I don't resize this how do I get to print it to the original scale? PLEASE HELP! I think I am very dense or need to give up my hobby and go back to nursing

 

[PJL]

Well, I have a Nikon 5100 DSLR camera. I want to print out a 16x20 picture of a gymnast I took. I went to print it out and her feet were cut off and the top of the pic was cut off. So if I don't resize this how do I get to print it to the original scale? PLEASE HELP! I think I am very dense or need to give up my hobby and go back to nursing

Quite simply, you don't. Your camera takes pictures in a different aspect than you're trying to print to, so you're going to lose part of the image if you try to print 16x20. Your camera takes pictures at a 2:3 size ratio, while you're trying to print at 4:5. If you want to see the whole image as you've taken it, you need to print to 16x24. If you try to print to any other ratio but 2:3 you will lose part of your image.

 

[bennielou]

My cropping workflow is a bit different from some, so this is how I do it. Others may completely differ, but there really isn't a right or wrong way to do things.

When I am doing a bridal, engagement, family, or infant session workflow, I always crop to the size the client photo is intended to be printed at. I didn't always do that, but clients got confused about cropping when I took a full size photo, and then cropped it for enlargements. Even when I explained to them that the photo would be cropped, they still assumed that the photo would look just like they saw it.

However, if I'm doing something like an event, a wedding, or a budoir that I know will end up in an album, or be purchased in many different sizes, I crop full sized. The way to do this is to open an image you took. Go to "Image Size", and it will tell you how large the image is. Put those numbers into your crop ratios. I often have several different cameras, and brands of cameras working on the same job, so I just average it. But if you are working a single camera job, then this should be easy. The important part of this is knowing when there is an "important" photo, one that might be purchased. You want to leave room in case you need an 8x10. (Digital cameras shoot in a 4x6 ratio, upgradeable).

If the camera doesn't shoot at a 16x20 straight out of camera, then you will need to upsize it. Many labs can do this for you.

Now: about Sam's Club, Costco, Walgreens, and soforth..........I will admit that all the equipment is basically the same. The difference between those place and a "good lab" is the paper the product is printed on, and the experience of the lab tech. If it's some 17 year old kid who is also a cashier, I don't want them trying to give me a print.

Two great companies for printing are MPIX, and Collages.Net. If you want to print your photos in your neighborhood, Wolf Camera is also good. They use great paper, and have pros manning the equipment. The cost is roughly the same. The quality is great. You don't want a good photo printed on a sub standard maintained machine, on crappy paper, when you can get a pro maintained machine on quality paper for a few pennies more. After all, it's your reputation.

Hope this post helps!

So to make things easier for the clients, who really don't understand crop ratios, I just made it the same crop they would recieve. It works out very well.

 

[KmH]

Thanks for this information. It seems discouraging though. People are wanting photos to fit into a 16x20 frame because they want it enlarged. while all of you are very knowledgeable I am still new at enlarging. It was a little hard to understand . Anyone wanna tell me in lay terms how to resize my pics? I notice in Photoshop even a 5x7 will need to have some picture lost if I try to crop to size it.

YOU DON'T RESIZE, YOU HAVE TO CROP.

Well, you can resize but that distorts your photo. Experienced shooter know to leave room when they frame a shot in the viewfinder for cropping to the various aspect ratios. It's called 'shooting fat'.

Here is a 3:2 frame (the gray) showing the biggest 7:5 (5x7) crop outline you cann possibly get. What editing software, if any, do you use? With Photoshop I can move the red 7:5 rectangle up or down if needed.

 

[KmH]

Well, I have a Nikon 5100 DSLR camera. I want to print out a 16x20 picture of a gymnast I took. I went to print it out and her feet were cut off and the top of the pic was cut off. So if I don't resize this how do I get to print it to the original scale? PLEASE HELP! I think I am very dense or need to give up my hobby and go back to nursing

Here is a tutorial that may be helpful. Basics of Digital Camera Pixels

In all honesty, photographers had to learn to deal with this issue a long time ago, since 35 mm film also has a 3:2 aspect ratio. So it nothing new to digital photography.

Large format cameras have a 4:5 aspect ratio. Most P&S cameras today have a 4:3 aspect ratio.

There are other more complex technical aspects to doing photography well.

 

[bazooka]

Once you get the right aspect ratio, go to Edit > Image Size. Make sure constrain proportions is checked. Then enter 16" into the width box. If the aspect is correct, the second box will automatically change to 20". Then check the resolution box to make sure it's still reasonably high. "Reasonable" depends on intended viewing distance. I recently printed a 16x20 and it looks good up close at 170 ppi (if I recall correctly). I don't think you should go lower than 150 if you're hanging it on a wall in a house, but it's up to you and/or your client. Do some googling and you'll find some helpful recommended resolution by viewing distance charts.

 

[GooniesNeverSayDie11]

Click the crop tool, and put in 16x20 for the measurements and then crop the photo. This will size your picture ( but you will lose the portion outside of the crop obviously and therefore throw away some of the cameras resolution. )

Your ppi will fluctuate based on how you crop. For instance, if you start with a 10x15 at 300ppi and put "4x6" into your crop tool settings and then crop the entire picture ( since they are both a 2:3 ratio ), you will end up with a 4x6 image, but the PPI will increase, to probably around 800ppi. This is because really all you did was shrink the image, but retained all of the data. However, if you cropped only half of the picture you would get a 4x6 that is 150ppi, because you not only "shrunk" or "condensed" that portion of the shot, but you also threw away half of the original 300ppi. Now if you go to IMAGE, and then IMAGE SIZE, you can manually size the photo that way. However, you have to stay in the same format ratio ( 2:3 ) unless you want to either crop, or distort the image. Thats why I always find it easier to just use the crop tool set to the size I want. That way if I change the ratio I can visually see it as I arrange the crop and not distort the image. Then if I lost too many PPI through cropping, I will go up to the "IMAGE-IMAGE SIZE" menu, and then change the PPI from 150, back to the 300 if I see fit. This will upsize the image back to its original resolution but at a different ratio ( albeit without the part of the image that did not fit ). Upsizing does not produce quite the same quality as the original image though so its kind of "computer voodoo" and the more you do it the more crappy the picture can get. So its best to minimize having to do that by avoiding cropping as much as possible ( hence allowing room around an image when you take the photo )

 

[KmH]

If the aspect ratio is right and the cropped photo has sufficient pixel dimensions, the print lab's RIP software will handle the sizing.

Don't crop the original. Crop a duplicate.