Resolution problem. Help.....
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Yeah, it's definitely not 1065 wide.
And I wouldn't call it blurry (from this size) either - maybe a bit "hazy" only. -
Kristy...I have the same problem all the time trying to post something here and there. I'm pretty new to all this digital image manipulation, but here's what I've found so far:
First you have to figure the physical size of your finish product times your desired resolution: I've got it in my head that screen standard is 72dpi, which is also just OK for a lot of print images. I try to use 96 as a minimum, up to as much file size as possible...the PS guru's around here should chime in to teach us both, thanks.
So...if your output is 36 inches wide, the file should be nearly 4000 pixels for pretty good quality...? I've also found reducing the image in steps of no greater than 66% at a time helps the final look a bunch (throwing in a "sharpen" in the middle if there needs to be more than three reduction steps).
Best, Tom.
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Thanks very much for your reply's. I wouldn't have made it this far if it wasn't for this site & the old one. Ya'll are a big help
Kristy.... -
Tom,
that's some nice info there... would you mind posting that in the Tut forum? just short and sweet like that. I think it's very valuable.
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Kris...frankly I'm just stumbling around finding my way as best I can, so I'm waiting/hoping the PS guru's will jump in with such. If not, I will of course help all I can. Tom.
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Hey guys, Well I got it fixed. Just wanted to show the final. I got with a PS guru here in town & learned some stuff. The problem was the resolution. Still new to PS I didn't realize the resolution was set Censored to protect your privacy 72. So we bumped it up to 300 along with a few other tweeks & it's all good now. I really learned alot from them in just 2 hrs. Still have alot to learn but I think I've got the basics down. Here's the final. http://www.justbclients.com/LADesign/
Thanks again for all your reply's,
Kristy..... -
PS...Everything Tom said made sense after I had meet with the PS guru & learned more about resolution, pixels, etc.......
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Sam, welcome. Where in alabama are you?
I live in Madison and work in Huntsville. -
I live & work in Cullman. I was the one that sent you a PM last week. It was so nice seeing a SU users close to home. I checked out your work on your site, nice work........
Kristy..... -
Sorry I forgot Sam. I guess your new Avatar threw me.
Thanks for the reply and comments.
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Sam, the link does not work for some reason - still I'm gla you found out what the "hack" had beeb...
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There is a free Photoshop Plug In that does automatically pretty much what Tom does: that is scale down the image in Steps which results in a far less hazy image than a single resize. With very hi res images, sizing down in about 10 steps is optimum. For ones that are already smaller a fewer number of steps is required. It also can be set to size down in percentages rather than in number of steps:
IM Photography - Stairstep Image Size
photo,photography,picture,image,event,people,portrait,landscape,fashion,beautiful,digital photography
(www.imphotography.com)
Also in regard to resolution; I did a 7 foot wide billboard once and I also did 7 foot tall banners for my Expo Booth. When you are working with such large images ( 7000 pixels wide for the billboard and over 10000 pixels tall for the banner I had to add a bottom part in Photoshop, my SKP would go big enough) the best you can hope for as a print resolution to cover your output size is 100dpi and 150 dpi for the banner. 150dpi was much better. Can't go any lower than that. At 200dpi you get quite good quality. Graphic Artists all work in 300dpi. The problem with the 100dpi and 150dpi is that it spreads the available pixels over a great area so that, even though the picture is not fuzzy, it is not adequately saturated. Usually at lower dpi you need to adjust "autosaturate" the saturation before printing. Trying test swatches of little sections at the print resolution is a good idea.
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Sorry for getting in here late... My initial thought was that the output in PS was set to a low DPI...which is was. For large format print work from PS, some folks even use 600 DPI, which is overkill unless you're making a billboard.
Glad you got it worked out!
Cheers,
- CraigD
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Photoshop's resolution setting is in ppi (pixels per inch) -- this is an arbitrary number which has nothing to do with how many pixels are in the image. It denotes the "size" of the pixel. DPI is a term that applies to printers, the dot pitch of the tiny nozzles -- they dither a mixture of primary colors -- typically 4, but up to 8 -- to fool the eye into seeing intermediate hues.
You can change the ppi in Pshop (remember to uncheck resample image) -- all this does is affect the size of the image printout. But you can over-ride the ppi setting in Pshop in the print preview diaglogue. Watch as you change the image printout size and you will see the ppi number change. The default 72 ppi or "screen resolution" in Pshop is an obsolute convention (dating from the original Macintosh small screen). If you have a screen that say measures 20 inches wide and your monitor resolution is 1920 by 1200, then you are looking at 96 pixels per inch. You can do the math for any other screen...
Since most printers dither or mix dots to make a color, you generally don't want to send an image that has a ppi resolution more than 1/3 the dpi pitch of the printer -- extra information will not help the printed output. I typically print out large format images (say 40" wide) at about 100 ppi, or 4000 pixels wide and they look fine. Of course if you get real close and use a magnifying glass you can see the individual pixels and even the dots. But generally large images are meant to be seen from a distance at least great enought to see the whole image. Billboards, for example, are typically printed at 9 pixels per inch up to a maximum 36 ppi.
Paul
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