Jamberlyn
1st of May 2006 (Mon), 17:34
Hi!
This is my first post here and I had some questions. I have a Digital Rebel. I want to take my best photos of the past two years and store them together on CDs. It would be good to have my best images easily available and not have to search my heaps and heaps of photo CDs to find them.
I'm wondering what is the minimum size I should save these images at? I'd like to have the option of submitting these photos to magazines or entering them in contests. I usually go into Photoshop and sharpen the photos, maybe do a little "Levels" or "Curves" to brighten if needed, and like to save at about 300 dpi. (I save copies of all my photo files as they were originally downloaded, though.)
I haven’t used RAW format until just recently, and am still figuring it out. I’ve been working in newspaper photography, so jpgs have worked well for me at work. Now, however, I’m becoming more conscious of wanting the absolute best quality image I can have.
Looking at the same image in its RAW state, as well as converted to TIFF and converted to JPG, I see the TIFF is saved (by my computer programs, at least) as a 32 by 21.333 inch image (3072 by 2048 pixels) at 96 dpi. The file itself is 36 MB.
When I converted the RAW image to JPG, I got an image that is 21.3 by 14.1 inches (2048 by 1360 pixels) and 96 dpi.
Obviously, when I can I want to shoot RAW in the future, but all my past images were shot in the Large-Fine format, no RAW, which means they’re jpgs, usually around 2 MB in size. Looking at a few of those just now, the average image size seems to be about 11.3 by 17 inches (2048 by 3072 pixels) and 180 dpi. (Not sure why they seem to be bigger files overall than the JPGs from a RAW file….)
I’ve been trying to save my favorite photos (again, these are all the large-fine jpgs) at about 10-12 inches on their widest side and at 300 dpi. Usually this blows up the picture a little bit. If I crop the image much, it makes it difficult to get a 300 dpi image that’s even close to 10 inches wide. I wonder if this blowing up is acceptable at all, or if I should avoid it completely- I realize that when it blows up some, the quality and sharpness is poorer- I’m just not sure at what point to give up. I try to add any “sharpen” effects after I change the image size.
If I can’t get an image up to at least 8 or 10 inches at its widest point and at 300 dpi, should I forget any idea of ever showing/publishing it professionally or as part of a contest? Or should my minimum be 12 inches at the widest point? Or…?
I noticed the “Nature’s Best” photography contest wants submissions that are 20 inches wide and 400 dpi! I’m lucky if I can get 20 inches to look good at 300 dpi, and I would be blowing the image up a lot to get there. Is “Nature’s Best” the norm out there? Is that for 11-12 Megapixel cameras only or something?
So, when I sharpen my images (if needed) and brighten them up (if needed), I want to save at 300 dpi but would like some idea of what the industry standards for photo sizes are- if any exist. And would like to know if ANY "blowing up" of an image to get to a specific size is acceptable as long as it doesn't seem to affect the quality of the image (to my eyes at least).
Thanks in advance for any answers! :)
This is my first post here and I had some questions. I have a Digital Rebel. I want to take my best photos of the past two years and store them together on CDs. It would be good to have my best images easily available and not have to search my heaps and heaps of photo CDs to find them.
I'm wondering what is the minimum size I should save these images at? I'd like to have the option of submitting these photos to magazines or entering them in contests. I usually go into Photoshop and sharpen the photos, maybe do a little "Levels" or "Curves" to brighten if needed, and like to save at about 300 dpi. (I save copies of all my photo files as they were originally downloaded, though.)
I haven’t used RAW format until just recently, and am still figuring it out. I’ve been working in newspaper photography, so jpgs have worked well for me at work. Now, however, I’m becoming more conscious of wanting the absolute best quality image I can have.
Looking at the same image in its RAW state, as well as converted to TIFF and converted to JPG, I see the TIFF is saved (by my computer programs, at least) as a 32 by 21.333 inch image (3072 by 2048 pixels) at 96 dpi. The file itself is 36 MB.
When I converted the RAW image to JPG, I got an image that is 21.3 by 14.1 inches (2048 by 1360 pixels) and 96 dpi.
Obviously, when I can I want to shoot RAW in the future, but all my past images were shot in the Large-Fine format, no RAW, which means they’re jpgs, usually around 2 MB in size. Looking at a few of those just now, the average image size seems to be about 11.3 by 17 inches (2048 by 3072 pixels) and 180 dpi. (Not sure why they seem to be bigger files overall than the JPGs from a RAW file….)
I’ve been trying to save my favorite photos (again, these are all the large-fine jpgs) at about 10-12 inches on their widest side and at 300 dpi. Usually this blows up the picture a little bit. If I crop the image much, it makes it difficult to get a 300 dpi image that’s even close to 10 inches wide. I wonder if this blowing up is acceptable at all, or if I should avoid it completely- I realize that when it blows up some, the quality and sharpness is poorer- I’m just not sure at what point to give up. I try to add any “sharpen” effects after I change the image size.
If I can’t get an image up to at least 8 or 10 inches at its widest point and at 300 dpi, should I forget any idea of ever showing/publishing it professionally or as part of a contest? Or should my minimum be 12 inches at the widest point? Or…?
I noticed the “Nature’s Best” photography contest wants submissions that are 20 inches wide and 400 dpi! I’m lucky if I can get 20 inches to look good at 300 dpi, and I would be blowing the image up a lot to get there. Is “Nature’s Best” the norm out there? Is that for 11-12 Megapixel cameras only or something?
So, when I sharpen my images (if needed) and brighten them up (if needed), I want to save at 300 dpi but would like some idea of what the industry standards for photo sizes are- if any exist. And would like to know if ANY "blowing up" of an image to get to a specific size is acceptable as long as it doesn't seem to affect the quality of the image (to my eyes at least).
Thanks in advance for any answers! :)