To make corrections to a digital image and print.

Stephanie1957

My end result is to make corrections on a digital image and save to print. Am I on track?
Thank you very much for any help.

Open image from digital camera
Duplicate
Crop, make any corrections
Image Size – change to the size I want and resolution to 300
Save and print

Ducky316 · Posted: Wed Aug 13, 2008 12:06 pm Post subject:

For great quality pics, and to ensure equal quality prints, you should have your camera set to take pics at the largest size possible. Do not lower the resolution once you edit or change the size either...The higher the resolution, the better the photo

Hope this helps!

Matt · VIP

I tend to make my corrections before cropping if possible, that way you've got more of the image to work with, and things may look different when adjusted!

Hope that helps

Stephanie1957 · Posted: Wed Aug 13, 2008 5:30 pm Post subject:

Thanks for helping.

My camera is set to take pictures at 10 mega pixels.

When I open up in Photoshop I look at the image size - the resolution is 72.

What I have been doing is open up digital image - make any corrections - crop to the size I want to print and set the resolution in the image size to 300. Am I doing this right to get a good print?

I was told that everytime you open up the image in Photoshop (jpeg) it degrades it. So do you bring into Photoshop - save as a psd and make all changes to the image in this format then save as jpeg again.

Thank you very much.

Matt · VIP

It's true to say that everytime you open and resave a JPEG, you start to compress already compressed pixels, and therefore lose quality every time you do it. I'd suggest opening up the JPEG in Photoshop, which will 'uncompress' the file for editing. If you need to resave and finish the editing at a later date, save the file as a PSD, but if you're happy that you've finished editing then save it back to a JPEG (if that's what you want the final format to be).

It might also be worth looking at keeping a PSD version in case you want to go back and edit at a later date, another reason for keeping all your edits non-destructive (adjustment layers, masks, smart filters) is that you can go back and amend them after you've closed the file.

The problem with keeping a PSD file for every JPEG you edit is filesize. PSD files are essentially uncompressed files and can grow to be very large. Using adjustment layers (instead of duplicating layers) can help keep the file size respectable but they'll still be large compared to a JPEG.

A print resolution of 300ppi is a good standard - it will give you great quality in the final print. I'm assuming you're suing an inkjet printer instead of a commercial one.

One last things, you didn't mention sharpening in your list above. If you're printing the file out, I'd suggest looking at sharpening the image just before you hit the Print button!

Hope this helps

Stephanie1957 · Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2008 7:08 pm Post subject:

Thank you very much for your help.

The image on my computer looks good, when I printed it the image was a bit dark. Is there any way of knowing this before printing?

Thanks again.

Stephanie

Matt · VIP

Making your prints match the screen is always a challenging job, primarily because the two outputs are producing using an opposite colour theory. Your screen display is based around light, and the print is based around ink. Judging the two is a fine art a lot of the time but there are steps you can take to help you out.

You can try going to the View menu and selecting the Proof options. This will make Photoshop try to replicate on screen what you're going to get from the printer. You need to set up your proofing options fiirst though. Another similar way is to convert to the CMYK mode, which will once again have Photoshop using only colours that it can successfully print (or that it thinks it can successfully print). Once you're done, don't convert back to RGB as you'll have lost all the colours that existed before converting to CMYK. Instead use the Undo command.

It might also be worth having your monitor calibrated if your finding large shifts in colour between the screen and the print.

Hope this helps

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