High Resolution Images And E-mail

[Mellem]

Recently I had to send through the e-mail, a digital photograph to be printed in a magazine. I am used to working with smaller images files. So then, my question relates specifically to high resolution images. I found that I am not familiar enough with the process of sending images of this magnitude and some of the technical aspects that go along with it. Therefore, I am interested and would appreciate any information that might assist me in learning more. Thank-you!

[Roger_Cavanagh]

Mellem,

Does your question relate to the preparation of the high res image, or the actual transmission of the finished image?

Regards,

[Mellem]

Thanks for your response. I am most concerned about the transmission. However, if you have enough time to address both issues, please do.

[Pekka]

Some thoughts:

Normally it's best to ask from whoever ordered the photos what is the size and quality they need.

Many 'old timer' AD's will say "we need 300dpi photo" - so you need to know how big it will be on paper (e.g. 2000 pixel wide will be 6.6 inches wide at 300 dpi, and 4 inches wide at 500dpi). As the actual paper could be printed in yet again a different dpi, it's always best to ask what is the desired X*Y pixel resolution they need. And prepare to meet many AD's that don't really understand the relation between dpi and pixels. Be patient :)

If dpi is not mentioned, I've seen that usually pixel sizes between 2000x1500 and 3000x2000 will do fine even on 1/4 to 1/2 page magazine print (less noise: bigger prints). For larger sizes feel free to resample it bigger - few people can tell the difference between 2x resized portrait and 2x bigger actual pixel resolution in a portrait if they don't have originals for side-by-side comparison. There's a great free resampling tool at http://www.nyphotographics.com/ftppage.htm .

But remember: most magazines care about image content, not slight quality issues.

Unprofiled JPEG format will do fine if other formats are not specifically required. Just pack the JPG with high quality setting.

Example: I have here a couple of official promo shots for Australian Farscape sci-fi series, meant for magazine use, and they are 1900x2850 and 2072x2850 JPEG's, and they are tagged as "300dpi".

As for the actual emailing: a better way to email is to have your own web server and place photos there in a folder (behind password if needed). This way you will ensure that client's email server is not rejecting you transmission and they can (re)get the photos anytime they need, and review them anywhere (in meetings etc).

[Roger_Cavanagh]

The only thing I can add to Pekka's response is to find out whether you should or should not tag your images with a colour space.

Regards,