A special resizing issue...need to know before the 15th!

SmokehBokeh

Hello everyone. I just joined this community and I've got a pressing matter. I hope you will share your knowledge with me. I've decided to enter a dog portrait contest and I've got this wonderful (horizontal) picture of my Golden Retriever. I shot with a 12MP point and shooter. The contest rules require submissions to be at least 3MP so I'm covered there, but I'm having resizing problems in photoshop. When I open the original JPEG in CS3, the pixel dimensions are 4000x3000 which is accurate, however the dimensions of the document are 55.556"x41.667" which is HUGE. The resolution is 72 ppi. At 100%, this picture is way too soft. Why is it so big? Eek

So my first fix was to resize it to 8x10 (10 hor./8 ver.). I did not uncheck 'resample image' and so I got the size I wanted, but the pixels dimensions shrunk to an unacceptable total (below 3MP). My second attempt was to uncheck 'resample image' and resize to 8x10 while maintaining the 4000x3000 pixels (resolution became 400 ppi); unfortunately, this resulted in an image that was just as huge as the original but whose dimensions were listed by photoshop as being 8x10 (and me saying "HUH?") Confused

So 8x10 would be a great size, but I want to preserve as much resolution as possible. It has to be at least 3MP but more would be ideal. Pictures must be submitted by June 15th. What do I do photoshop gurus?!

iDad · Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 2:28 pm Post subject:

Not sure what to tell you but if the is only 72ppi what I would do is set as my screen background snap a shop that way then resize it from there.

salvadore · Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 6:59 pm Post subject:

I would say,
select the crop tool, set the peramiters to 10 in wide by 8 in tall at 300 dpi, and crop that thing just how you want it.

you can find these peramiters at the top of the screen while the crop tool is selected.

Hope this helps.

otherwise, just put these specs into the image/size command.

The reason the image is so big is because you are only getting 72 pixels in every inch, if you had 300 pixels in every inch it would eat right through those thousands of pixels.

rogermota · Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2009 3:38 am Post subject:

Hi SmokehBokeh,

Do not resize your image!

Pixels when displayed on a monitor are different from pixels when printed. When on a monitor, your image will always be shown at 72dpi. When printing, you can assign as many pixels to a square inch as you want. Normally when sending a picture to be professionally printed, the requirement is 300dpi.

When you unticked "resample image", it means that the actual amount of data (the pixels that make up the image) won't change. When you change the dpi or the height or width in inches, all you're doing is changing the balance. Increase the dpi and the printed size (height and width in inches) will be smaller.

So, leave "resample image" unchecked, set the size to 8x10". Your resolution will be 400dpi (meaning there will be 400 pixels used for every square inch printed). This is more than what is required by printing presses, but by no means bad. If you want to preserve as much detail as possible, leave it 400dpi. If, on the other hand, you want to remove the "excess" detail (even by press standards), then you can go back and turn "resample image" on and change the dpi to 300. This time the physical dimension (8x10") will not change, but you will see the number of pixels that make up your image will go down.

Reading all this can be a bit dense, there are plenty of youtube videos that show and explain this, might be easier to understand: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=&search_query=understand+image+size&aq=f

Good luck on the contest!

Rog

SmokehBokeh · Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2009 7:54 am Post subject:

I appreciate everyones contributions. I especially thank you rogermota, that is exactly what I needed to know. Your response was helpful and thorough.

This contest permits the submission of photographs by mail and electronically. Since they require at least 3MP, I'm sure the judges are prepared to receive electronic submissions that your average computer monitor will not be able to display accurately. Therefore, they will probably print those photographs or view them on a more sophisticated device. Abiding by their rules, I've done everything I can.

I'll keep you posted (pun intended). Big Wink

hawkeye · Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2009 9:51 am Post subject:

Just for the record the 72 PPI that everyone quotes is not accurate. That came from the early days of computers but no longer holds true. What you see on your monitor is really dependent on the monitor.

You can do the math rather quickly to find out what your actual screen resolution is. Measure the actual width (or the height) of your monitors screen. Let's say it's 15X12 inches and the screen resolution is 1280 X 1024.

1280/15=85.3 PPI not 72.

rogermota · Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2009 10:34 am Post subject:

Hawkeye is correct. 72dpi/ppi is simply a convention to denote "display resolution". The fact of the matter is, as SmokehBokeh found out, it doesn't matter at all what the "dpi" setting says, monitors will always show 1 pixel as 1 pixel. That's why changing your 55 x 41 inch 72 dpi image to 8 x 10 300 dpi makes no visual difference in Photoshop.

If you have a 800x600 screen then 800x600 is all that you could possibly see on that monitor. The number of pixels (the resolution of your monitor) and the physical size of the monitor will give you your true screen's dpi (most at around 85-110dpi), but that's all irrelevant technicalities.

The bottom line is, you only need to worry about DPI/PPI if your image is meant for print. If not, just look how many pixels your image is.

And SmokehBokeh, I don't think the judges will be using any specialized equipment. They'll probably open the images, see them as they fit on screen (probably at a zoom view of 12.5%) and then zoom in to the image if they choose to see more of the detail (for example the dog's strands of hair). The 3MP guideline is just there to make sure there's enough detail in the images.

Anyway, enough about pixels. Best of luck to ya!

iDad · Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2009 11:26 am Post subject:

Don't they have a monitor or display widget or app that will tell you your PPI .I seem to recall having one with my first system years ago. For the life of me I can not remember the name of it.

Patrick · Administrator

Welcome aboard, SmokehBokeh.

Good luck in the competition.

Great job on the replies, as well, rogermota, hawkeye, iDad and salvadore!

Patrick

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