Working with photos (rather unexpectedly)

**unfaithfulsfan** · 11 June 2013, 12:39 AM

On the surface, it's really not a bad thing although I don't really consider myself a "photographer" in the strictest sense of the profession. I take photos at events, cull out the not-so-great-ones and post the rest to the web site via one method or other. Apparently, I do a good enough job of that to get asked by our volunteer fire department to photograph their annual Inspection Ceremony & Breakfast. The excuse being that they like my work on the web site and would like to keep the money in the village rather than pay some "interloper". (Most of this is tongue-in-cheek, BTW. I'm really grateful for the work and the vote of confidence)

Where I have started to run into trouble is in editing & exporting to photos for print, since that is the purpose of the photos....to frame and to display in the fire hall and in the homes of those firefighters who might wish to do so. I am, of course, using Designer Pro X.

My first snafu was that I woke up Sunday morning (the day of the shoot) with blood sugar about 6x normal. That's OK, I can function-not well, but I can function. Got all the group shots with no trouble. The other reason they asked me (ha HA! the plot thickens) is that they want to do individual head shots for the first time ever to create a yearbook of sorts. That was all fine and dandy until I got home and looked at the files and realized there was a giant doorknob attached to a hideous door on the right side of the individual photos!

P&GD's Cloning Tool to the rescue!! (I was pretty impressed with my endeavor since it was the first time I'd tried it. Even more so because I showed my wife the finished product at full screen and she was like "What?". Then I showed her the original. Made me feel kinda good, y'know?)

Anyway, that crisis averted, for the individual photos, I'm trying to export them to a resolution that will allow prints up to 8" x 10". The original photos were taken at 10M or 3648x2736 which the book says is good for up to a 9" x 12". According to my research I've found that the best resolution for the size print I want is 3072x2304. Here is where I'm really getting confused.

When I export the JPEG at 3072x2304 it shows 96 dpi. Is that high enough for very good print quality? The manual says 150 dpi for print but setting that changes the dimensions. I feel like I don't completely understand how dpi and resolution are interrelated when it comes to the actual dimensions of an image. dpi is obviously a print term. My head is roaring right now.

Also, prior to export, should I optimize the photo? I'm having a bit of trouble wrapping my head around this segment. I think I understand that optimizing is destructive so I'm not doing that, obviously, until I'm done with all the head shots and have extra copies so I have a way back. If someone could dumb down this process for me, I'd be extremely grateful.

Thanks again for your help!

**gwpriester** · 11 June 2013, 01:03 AM

Sounds like you are doing everything pretty much OK.

Make the images the physical size that they will print, then optimize the images to 300dpi and you'll be OK.

**pauland** · 11 June 2013, 01:06 AM

8" X 10" at 300DPI would require 8x300 X 10x300 pixels = an image 2400 X 3000 pixels in size.

8" X 10" at 150DPI would require 8x150 X 10x150 pixels = an image 1200 X 1500 pixels in size.

Don't get hung up by the DPI setting on export, the most important thing is the pixel size.

**unfaithfulsfan** · 11 June 2013, 02:00 PM

Whew! Thanks! I'm not kidding, I had almost reached the point of babbling (or maybe I passed it!). "Pixels-dpi. dpi-pixels. whatdoIdowhatdoIdo....."

Just to make sure, when I optimize the photo, all the edits become permanent, right? But I still have the base image file from my camera which I placed in a separate directory. Point being, I don't optimize until I'm completely through and satisfied with the final product?

Thanks again for the help

**unfaithfulsfan** · 11 June 2013, 02:03 PM

Oh, and pauland, thanks for the formula!! That makes things much easier!

**gwpriester** · 11 June 2013, 02:21 PM

It is always a good idea to keep an unedited version of the image at the original resolution, just in case.

**unfaithfulsfan** · 11 June 2013, 05:18 PM

Oh, one other thing I'm kind of shaky on: I want to do a layout for print. In one case, I want to have the group shot in the center with the individual shots framing the border on a white background. What is the best way to do that in P&GD? A presentation or just a photo document? It's one of the print options I want to offer them. Another is to add the fire department's "coat of arms" as a line drawing next to the individual's photo with a neutral backgound. Does that make sense?

I know how to do that as a web graphic but I just want to make sure I understand for print. Thanks again!

**unfaithfulsfan** · 11 June 2013, 08:51 PM

OK, now I'm totally lost. When I optimize (or tried to) a photo, I selected Optimize; then clicked Settings. Instead of dpi, I'm now presented with ppi. The formula for ppi makes no sense whatsoever to me.

This article makes NO sense to me. I have no idea how he arrives at 250 ppi as the "Square Root" of anything related to his formula:

H" x W" = In² or 10" x 8" = 80 In² Check, makes sense
MegaPixels ÷ In² = # of ppi (His Example) 5 MP ÷ 80 = 0.0625 ppi Bizarre, but OK
The Square Root of that number is the ppi. (I thought we just calculated that?)
√0.0625 = 0.25 That does not= 250

In any event, I still don't get how dpi relates to ppi. Or vice versa.

I truly don't intend to beat the proverbial equine corpse but why does Xara change mounts in the middle of that stream? (Not to mix metaphors!)

Ai yi yi!