Taking files to get prints

[dennykyser]

Do they need to be sized (4X6,5X7,8X10) on the media your taking before you take them in?

This will be the first time I get prints made, thanks for any sugestions and help.

Denny

[PacAce]

Do they need to be sized (4X6,5X7,8X10) on the media your taking before you take them in?

This will be the first time I get prints made, thanks for any sugestions and help.

Denny

They don't HAVE to be but I always do. I'd rather to the cropping and the resizing myself rather than relying on the operator of the machine at the "lab". I also want to make sure that the right amount of USM is applied for the size I want printed.

[Tom W]

Do they need to be sized (4X6,5X7,8X10) on the media your taking before you take them in?

This will be the first time I get prints made, thanks for any sugestions and help.

Denny

They don't HAVE to be but I always do. I'd rather to the cropping and the resizing myself rather than relying on the operator of the machine at the "lab". I also want to make sure that the right amount of USM is applied for the size I want printed.

Leo - do you mean that you resize them down to the "300 ppi" size and crop them to the ratio needed for 4X6 or 5X7 or whatever size the prints will be, or do you just do your cropping for content and ratio?

For the sake of experiment only, I took some unenhanced 4-meg JPEGS directly from the S-400 to the lab for prints. They're pretty decent, but then again, the lab I used was pretty good as well. I was more interested in seeing what a "pro" print would be like, compared to my printer's output. The lab won. :)

I do, however, understand the concern for a lab not cropping things right - I had some 8X10's made from negatives and the lab chose to crop things in an unexpected way, losing an important part of the picture. Fortunately, they redid those two in 8X12 for me so nothing was lost.

[PacAce]

Leo - do you mean that you resize them down to the "300 ppi" size and crop them to the ratio needed for 4X6 or 5X7 or whatever size the prints will be, or do you just do your cropping for content and ratio?

Tom, I do actually both but as different steps in my workflow. Since I may make both 8x10 and 4x6 prints for a given image, I'll first crop for 8x12 (without specifying the resolution to prevent resampling) if the content of the image requires it (such as getting rid of that annoying bystander that happened to end up in the photo, if you know what I mean). If no initial cropping is required, then the original image is already at an 8x12 profile. I'll then do whatever level, color, etc. adjustments I need to make for the image.

When I'm all done with the adjustments, that's when I'll resize the image for the print I want at 300 dpi. If I want 4x6 prints, I'll resize for that and then apply USM appropriate for 4x6 and then save the image as a JPEG file at "maximum" (10).

For 8x10, I'll obviously need to crop something out from the long end(s) to make the image fit the 8x10 profile. Then I'll resize for 8x10 and then apply USM appropriate for an 8x10 print.

All my images will also get resized for displaying on the web so a given image may end up in a couple of different "Final" folders depending on what sizes they were saved as.

[Tom W]

Thanks, Leo. The information is appreciated.

[defordphoto]

Actually, unless you want the photo cropped you do not have to do anything to your files. Just take them in, as is, and they will print just fine. there is no need to convert them to a certain dpi or size. That will happen while printing and will print at the max dpi available no matter what you have your files sized as.

[PacAce]

Actually, unless you want the photo cropped you do not have to do anything to your files. Just take them in, as is, and they will print just fine. there is no need to convert them to a certain dpi or size. That will happen while printing and will print at the max dpi available no matter what you have your files sized as.

Yes, true, Jim, but I actually would like to control the sharpness (or the softness, as the case may be) of the image that comes out and I can only do that by resizing to the appropriate size and applying USM as I would like it.

[defordphoto]

Actually, unless you want the photo cropped you do not have to do anything to your files. Just take them in, as is, and they will print just fine. there is no need to convert them to a certain dpi or size. That will happen while printing and will print at the max dpi available no matter what you have your files sized as.

Yes, true, Jim, but I actually would like to control the sharpness (or the softness, as the case may be) of the image that comes out and I can only do that by resizing to the appropriate size and applying USM as I would like it.

It'd be interesting to post-process a full size file and then a resized file to see if there is really any difference. I post process mine full size. And that could also vary between developing machines too. There seems to be a pretty severe size limit on the Wal-Mart machines as some of my larger files would not even show on their kiosk. I ended up taking the over to Costso and all was good.

[PacAce]

It'd be interesting to post-process a full size file and then a resized file to see if there is really any difference. I post process mine full size. And that could also vary between developing machines too. There seems to be a pretty severe size limit on the Wal-Mart machines as some of my larger files would not even show on their kiosk. I ended up taking the over to Costso and all was good.

Jim, that'a good idea. I've never thought to do that but it might be a very educational exercise. Who knows, it might even save me some extra steps in my workflow if there really isn't any discernable difference between the resampling Photoshop does and the resampling that's done my Walmart or CVS. I just always assumed that the resampling algorithm in Photoshop would be far more superior to that used in these kiosk machines at Walmart or CVS.