resolution

[tarzieboy]

help please, i.ve taken some first pictures with my nikon d40, experimenting,
the pictures,,of my great grandaughter, look good to me, quality wise, i wish to crop them as the subject is a little too far away, what size could i have them printed the d40 is 6 meg & i,d probably crop away roughlya third of the picture, i wish to see how they come out, without me doing anything to them in photoshop, i,d be happy with 5x7,,,, john

[Stephen]

Re: resolution

help please, i.ve taken some first pictures with my nikon d40, experimenting,
the pictures,,of my great grandaughter, look good to me, quality wise, i wish to crop them as the subject is a little too far away, what size could i have them printed the d40 is 6 meg & i,d probably crop away roughlya third of the picture, i wish to see how they come out, without me doing anything to them in photoshop, i,d be happy with 5x7,,,, john

John, this should be easy if you have PS. Select the Crop tool in the Toolbox. On the tool bar at the top of the window you should see a button with the crop tool symbol in it. This button has a drop down arrow. Click this and find the option for 5x7in @ 300ppi After doing this those dimentions should appear in the boxes at the top of the window. Now crop your image at the points you want and accept it. The image should be cropped to exactly 5x7 and it will print out at exactly that size using the Print Preview dialogue in the File menu

[tarzieboy]

Re: resolution

hi stephen, many thanks for your explicit & prompt reply, will have a go,,,,john

[tarzieboy]

Re: resolution

stephen! as my printer is only a little epson picture mate,i intend to have them printed at jessops, will saving them to my sd card after croppng as jpegs, deteriorate the image

[Stephen]

Re: resolution

stephen! as my printer is only a little epson picture mate,i intend to have them printed at jessops, will saving them to my sd card after croppng as jpegs, deteriorate the image

Save them at Max quality and they should be OK John. It is possible that the crop and resize may marginally reduce quality but I doubt it will be noticeable at that size

[tarzieboy]

Re: resolution

many thanks stephen,,,,,john

[Pol]

Re: resolution

many thanks stephen,,,,,john

Another printing service you might like to try is Phototbox.com. There's a link to it from the DPNow homepage at http://dpnow.com/ (link is top right).

Their prints are excellent - I often get their 6 x 4 and sometimes use their gift services too, never been disappointed and everything arrives very quickly.

You simply register with an account, upload your pictures to an online album and order what you want. There are instructions on there about what size the file needs to be for a decent print and all sorts of help available to help you get the best from the service.

I usually size my 6 x 4 prints at 1800 x 1200 pixels and 300dpi then I save them at the highest possible level (level 12 in Photoshop) and the final file is usually getting on for about 2mb. They print a good 6 x 4 from that.

If you want larger prints just look at their 'services and prices' chart and FAQ and it'll explain what size is best for the print. Try just a few at first until you get used to how it works.

Hope that helps. If not now - maybe for future use.

Pol

[Goatsmilkuk]

Re: resolution

I have Digital Camera mag each month, this month has a write up (in their camera buyers guide) on different places to get your photos printed, for sizes 6x4 and 7x5 believe it or not Asda came out top for quality and price, while for larger sizes and online Snapfish came out best.

HTH

[coupekid]

Re: resolution

Another printing service you might like to try is Phototbox.com. There's a link to it from the DPNow homepage at http://dpnow.com/ (link is top right).


Pol

Here here

Photobox are excellent, very quick, and the quality is good.

I have had anumber of A3 prints from them, mugs, t-shirts, and couple of photo books, all of which are splendid!

[Pol]

Re: resolution

I have Digital Camera mag each month, this month has a write up (in their camera buyers guide) on different places to get your photos printed, for sizes 6x4 and 7x5 believe it or not Asda came out top for quality and price, while for larger sizes and online Snapfish came out best.

Stu

Possibly .. but I prefer to make recommendations based on hard evidence and personal experience.

Pol

[Pol]

Re: resolution

Here here

Photobox are excellent, very quick, and the quality is good.

I have had anumber of A3 prints from them, mugs, t-shirts, and couple of photo books, all of which are splendid!

I ordered some of their mugs at Christmas and was delighted with them, as were the recipients. I also use their A5 size personalised greeting cards - they always turn out well.

They're SO reliable and always so fast and well presented imo. Very good, easy website and ordering system too.

Pol

[tarzieboy]

Re: resolution

many thanks for that Pol,sounds very interesting,i first printed them out on my little Epsom Photomate with some very cheap paper, when i brought the jessops prints home they were a little too colourful, & what bugs me a bit, is the backgrounds all muddied dark green, no fault of jessops really, up to me to do better as a photographer i suppose, still as my daughter said,,, all good practise i usually look at the eyes to see how sharp the photo is, perhaps it would be a good idea, to focus on the eye,s level, what do you think, thanks john

[Goatsmilkuk]

Re: resolution

Possibly .. but I prefer to make recommendations based on hard evidence and personal experience.

Pol

They did a full test Pol and wrote up the results of how the shots compared to the original, can't find the supplement it was in though, it's either been recycled or I have been dreaming about printing.

Edit

Just found it and I'm a BIG HAIRY LIAR!! Well in part anyway, Asda top the retail section 5 stars, snapfish are big and getting bigger but with 3 stars, it's Photobox that are top for online with 5 stars plus editors choice.
I'm glad I found it as I almost sent my pics to Snapfish and not Photobox


Stu (Donkey Brains) Goatsmilk

[Pol]

Re: resolution

many thanks for that Pol,sounds very interesting,i first printed them out on my little Epsom Photomate with some very cheap paper, when i brought the jessops prints home they were a little too colourful, & what bugs me a bit, is the backgrounds all muddied dark green, no fault of jessops really, up to me to do better as a photographer i suppose, still as my daughter said,,, all good practise i usually look at the eyes to see how sharp the photo is, perhaps it would be a good idea, to focus on the eye,s level, what do you think, thanks john

The key factor to getting good prints is all about colour management. The first crucial stage in colour management is to calibrate your screen. There are specific software packages that'll do the calibration for you.

As far as I know - most print houses have their printers calibrated for sRGB so that's the colour profile to use when you send a file away to be printed (someone please correct me if I'm wrong).

So - if you have a calibrated screen - you can process your picture, save it and send it for printing and the chances are your print will come back near enough exactly as seen on your screen. The aim is to calibrate and save to the standard that'll match the printing service colour profile.

I use 'Spyder 2' software to calibrate my own screen and it suits me fine. I always send my files saved as sRGB to photobox ...... and they always come back to me as expected - near as damnit the same as on my screen. There are other calibration systems but I never used others so I can't comment on them.

Colour management is a huge subject - but calibrating your monitor is the way to get started. That should see better returns from the printing service - especially if you send them to an online source rather than fiddling about with putting them back on a SD card and trotting off to the likes of Jessops. I'm a simple soul so I use the easy route .. ie online services.

Colour management can appear daunting at first but it begins to make sense after a while. The screen calibration software and gizmos aren't difficult to use either. I do my PC screen maybe every couple of weeks and my laptop gets done maybe once a month. I can assure you anyone can do it if I can manage...... truly!

Here's a link that explains in more detail.

I hope all that makes sense.

Pol