How to crop/specify aspect ration without diminshing file si

[dougsturgess]

I'm getting ready to take photos in for developing when I notice the final file size of most of the pics is under 1 megabite. I took all the photos at 2272x1604, most in RAW, some in Jpeg.

I'm shocked to see the final size so small. I converted the RAW's to TIFF, sent into Photoshop 7.0 and changed to PSD files, made my enhancements, cropped some to 4x6, 5x7, 8x10.

The 4x6's final size ranges from 389-4700 KB, the final file size of the 5x7's range from 690-1200 KB and the final 8x10 range from 1.5-2.8 MB.

Did I do something wrong? Does cropping the originals to fit 4x6 really end up in a file so much smaller? Will the small files produce poor photos??

Thanks!

[slejhamer]

Sounds like you are resizing but not resampling.

Using the cropping tool in PS, set the image dimensions as you like, and set PPI to 240 or 300 (depending on your printer's recommendation). Then drag the cropping tool over your image to select the area you want to keep and hit 'enter.' The image will crop, resize and resample at the same time.

There are other methods, but this is a quick-and-easy way. Hope you find it helpful.

[Roger_Cavanagh]

Doug,

What resolution setting do you have on your images? This will affect the physical/print size of images. If you have a low res number the original dimensions will be larger so cropping to 4x6 will make the file size much smaller. I can't tell exactly what the problem is from your post, so I'll describe what I do to see if that helps.

I have a D30 so pixel dimensions are 2160 x 1440.

I have an Epson 2000P and I print at 240 DPI resolution, which I set in BreezeBrowser preferences so TIFF's converted from raw have this setting when they are loaded into Photoshop.

This combination gives me a print size of 6 x 9. The PSD file size is approx 18mb.

To get a larger size, say 12 x 8, I use Image>Image Size and change the document size. This gives a PSD of 32mb.

To get a 6 x 4 image, I use Image>Image Size again and get PSD files of 8 mb.

Print quality will be the same at all the sizes. A 6 x 4 is 24 square inches compared to 54 sq in for a 6 x 9, so there is a big difference in file size. I assume the file sizes you quote are for JPG, so a direct comparison is effected by compression, it doesn't seem wildly out to have a 3:1 for 10 x 8:6 x 4 - 80 sq ins:24 sq ins.

Regards,