Resolution/MP

[mhattonmd]

Hi all
I was fortuanate to have an magazine take interest in a photo for their cover. Normally I shoot raw qith a 22 MP camera. Of couse the one they were interested in was on another camer and it is a 5.4 MP jpeg. They are telling me that they need it to be 12 MB minumum to avoid pixelation. Any advice?
Many thanks

 

[Joves]

How big is this magazine that it pixelates with a 5 meg image? I have printed magazine sized photos with a 3 meg image with no pixelation whatsoever. Sounds like a joke to me.

 

[KmH]

MP and MB are 2 different things.

MP, or Mega Pixels are the pixel dimensions of the image.

MB, or Mega Bytes, is a data file size.

A 5.4 MP JPEG image can be a wide variety of file sizes that depend on how much the image file is compressed.
Your JPEG images was compressed at least once already, and your computer will say how many MB the file currently is there on your computer.

Now.
When a digital image file is made into a physical document, like a magazine cover, another number comes into play, and that is the print resolution.
Print resolution is specified as so many PPI or pixels per inch.

If your JPEG was made on a DSLR camera and hasn't been cropped, it likely has a 3:2 aspect ratio and is just under 3000 pixels by 2000 pixels (6 MP)
Most monthly magazines are close to 8 1/2 x 11.
So 3000 pixels divided by 11 inches = 272.7 PPI which should be plenty.

If your JPEG file is smaller than 12 MB, you can increase the the image resolution which will also increase the file size.
But, increasing the resolution means making up pixels that never actually existed, and if not done well can f'up your photo such that the magazine cannot use it.

So tell us what the pixel dimensions and file size of the JPEG are.

FWIW.
The average use licensing price for one time, non exclusive reproduction rights of an image to be used on the cover of a magazine:
that has a print run of 10,000 or fewer magazines is - $775
that has a print run of 10,000 to 50,000 magazines is - $975
that has a print run of 50,000 to 100,000 magazines is - $1050
that has a print run of 100,000 to 250,000 magazines is - $1100
that has a print run of 250,000 to 500,000 magazines is - $1200
that has a print run of 500,000 to 1M magazines is - $1375
that has a print run of 1M to 3M magazines is - $1500
that has a print run of 5M to 10M magazines is - $1850
that has a print run of over 10M magazines is - $2250

 

[grafxman]

MP and MB are 2 different things.

MP, or Mega Pixels are the pixel dimensions of the image.

MB, or Mega Bytes, is a data file size.

A 5.4 MP JPEG image can be a wide variety of file sizes that depend on how much the image file is compressed.
Your JPEG images was compressed at least once already, and your computer will say how many MB the file currently is there on your computer.

Now.
When a digital image file is made into a physical document, like a magazine cover, another number comes into play, and that is the print resolution.
Print resolution is specified as so many PPI or pixels per inch.

If your JPEG was made on a DSLR camera and hasn't been cropped, it likely has a 3:2 aspect ratio and is just under 3000 pixels by 2000 pixels (6 MP)
Most monthly magazines are close to 8 1/2 x 11.
So 3000 pixels divided by 11 inches = 272.7 PPI which should be plenty.

If your JPEG file is smaller than 12 MB, you can increase the the image resolution which will also increase the file size.
But, increasing the resolution means making up pixels that never actually existed, and if not done well can f'up your photo such that the magazine cannot use it.

So tell us what the pixel dimensions and file size of the JPEG are.

FWIW.
The average use licensing price for one time, non exclusive reproduction rights of an image to be used on the cover of a magazine:
that has a print run of 10,000 or fewer magazines is - $775
that has a print run of 10,000 to 50,000 magazines is - $975
that has a print run of 50,000 to 100,000 magazines is - $1050
that has a print run of 100,000 to 250,000 magazines is - $1100
that has a print run of 250,000 to 500,000 magazines is - $1200
that has a print run of 500,000 to 1M magazines is - $1375
that has a print run of 1M to 3M magazines is - $1500
that has a print run of 5M to 10M magazines is - $1850
that has a print run of over 10M magazines is - $2250

Now you have me wondering what I might have asked for a couple of my photos that were used for a commercial purpose. I was contacted by a company that does wall art murals in restaurants. They use only local photos for the wall art. I provided two photos taken with my 7D that were quite ordinary. I reprocessed the RAW files to high quality 300dpi. They were too large to email. I have a 20MB maximum so I sent them to a dropbox. They never offered any money and I never asked. I did have to sign a release for photos. Any idea what something like that would normally cost a company?

 

[KmH]

Companies have figured out they can approach amateur photographers and get images for commercial usage for free, or for a tiny fraction of normal commercial photography usage rates.

When a inexperienced business person does business with an experienced business person, the inexperienced business person usually gets some pretty expensive experience.

How much more would depend on the wall mural size, if they want exclusive use or non-exclusive use of the image(s), how long they want to use the image (likely years since it's a wall mural), and if they don't want to pay for any other type of usage of the image, like interior shots of the restaurant that show your image(s) in online or other advertising media.

In the case of a wall mural left up for years you could get a yearly fee, effectively getting paid several times.

A release? What did the release say? You have a copy of it, right?

300 PPI (DPI is incorrect) just defines how big a print will be based on the pixel dimensions of the image.

The 7D makes photos that have maximum pixel dimensions of 5184 px by 3456 px.

The long side of the image as a printed document is then set at - 5184 pixels divided by 300 pixels per inch = 17.28 inches.
So to make it a wall mural, the wall mural had to be made at a much lower document resolution (ppi) (which is how they do it for billboards), or the pixel dimensions had to be up-res'd 10x or more since people in a restaurant can get a closer look at a wall mural
51840 px / 300 ppi = 172.8 inches = 14.4 feet
5184 px / 30 ppi = 172.8 inches = 14.4 feet

 

[grafxman]

Thanks for your prompt response. I have a copy of the release. Here are the photos:

IMG_0721 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

IMG_0798 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

As you can see they are the most ordinary of images that anyone could go by the place and photograph. Frankly I would have been embarrassed to ask for any money for them. The mural was supposed to be up this month. I'm going to be in the area for a week next month so I'll go by the restaurant and take a look. They said they would add my name to the photos so maybe I'll get my ego stroked a bit.