Can you post process a photo

And then send it to Nations or other printing company and have it printed without size restrictions? Paul

You are still restricted to the size that you processed it to. If you cropped it to a 5X7 then you can't print it to a 20X30 and expect it to look good. But I am not sure that is what you were asking.
 

tea2085

Senior Member
Don, I was asking about size w/o cropping. Like when you post a photo on this forum and have to adjust it on the long end and number of pixels. I may need to crop , though, but doesn't nations have a system where you can preview your print? Thanks for your post. Paul
 

hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Contributor
What size are you looking to print, and what size is the original photo? When I used Nations, I looked to see what printing sizes they offered then did all my own cropping or sizing adjustments before I uploaded my files. So what size photo do you have?
 

tea2085

Senior Member
Hark, I guess I'm not sure of exactly what "size" means, but these are the details of the photo
4953 X2995, w4953 pixels H 2995 pixels. If that's not what you're asking me enlighten me. Paul
 

Fred Kingston

Senior Member
Print houses deliver product based on the size of the final image...

4"X6", 8X10, 11X14, etc... they're only interested in pixels from that stand point that there's enough... Usually 300 dots per inch in what commercial printers print at, unless you get into other forms of high end printing...

Folks like Nations, do NOT want to crop/size your image... about the only standard changing they'll do is "color correction"...

It's up to you to size/crop and deliver your image in a sufficiently high enough resolution...

If you crop an image heavily... YOU might have to upsize the resolution to produce an acceptable print of a large size...
 

hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Contributor
Hark, I guess I'm not sure of exactly what "size" means, but these are the details of the photo
4953 X2995, w4953 pixels H 2995 pixels. If that's not what you're asking me enlighten me. Paul

Paul, I don't know which editing program you are using, but here is an example. I created a new document in PCC entering the pixel dimensions you listed with a resolution of 300. The screen shot below confirms the dimensions. Towards the right side of the pop up box, you can see the word Pixels with a drop down arrow next to it.

pixels to inches 1.jpg


I clicked the drop down arrow and chose Inches (which automatically converts the measurement from pixels to inches).

pixels to inches 2.jpg


So the starting size of your photo is slightly larger than 16"x9". You want to make sure the resolution is 300 if the image is going to be printed. Then hopefully whatever program you have has the ability to crop to a specific size (or ratio). If I wanted to crop this to 5"x7", I have the option to select those exact measurements OR I can select a 5x7 ratio. If I choose the latter, my overall file size is larger. Here is the same file now cropped to a 5x7 ratio. It is now a little larger than 9"x13" and could be printed as a 5x7 photo if desired.

pixels to inches 3.jpg


What program(s) do you have, and what size are you looking to print?
 

480sparky

Senior Member
Paul, I don't know which editing program you are using, but here is an example. I created a new document in PCC entering the pixel dimensions you listed with a resolution of 300. The screen shot below confirms the dimensions. Towards the right side of the pop up box, you can see the word Pixels with a drop down arrow next to it.

View attachment 271255

I clicked the drop down arrow and chose Inches (which automatically converts the measurement from pixels to inches).

View attachment 271256

So the starting size of your photo is slightly larger than 16"x9". You want to make sure the resolution is 300 if the image is going to be printed. Then hopefully whatever program you have has the ability to crop to a specific size (or ratio). If I wanted to crop this to 5"x7", I have the option to select those exact measurements OR I can select a 5x7 ratio. If I choose the latter, my overall file size is larger. Here is the same file now cropped to a 5x7 ratio. It is now a little larger than 9"x13" and could be printed as a 5x7 photo if desired.

View attachment 271257

What program(s) do you have, and what size are you looking to print?





Or, you could just divide 4953 by 300, and 2995 by 300.
 

tea2085

Senior Member
Fred, you said " If you crop an image heavily... YOU might have to upsize the resolution to produce an acceptable print of a large size.." How in the heck do you upsize the resolution?
Thanks, Paul.


 

480sparky

Senior Member
Fred, you said " If you crop an image heavily... YOU might have to upsize the resolution to produce an acceptable print of a large size.." How in the heck do you upsize the resolution?
Thanks, Paul.



You merely resize the photo, specifying more pixels. Problem is, the software can't create details that aren't there. You can upsize some, but after a certain point (which is minimal) it degrades the image.
 

Fred Kingston

Senior Member
Fred, you said " If you crop an image heavily... YOU might have to upsize the resolution to produce an acceptable print of a large size.." How in the heck do you upsize the resolution?
Thanks, Paul.



What Sparky said is true... depending on your software... some are better than others...

An example is Lightroom... To create a print... you first select the image, and crop the image, using their crop tool... <--this step is important, because LR lets you crop an image and maintain a specific aspect ratio... <-- The native pixel arrangement for a 35mm sensor is 8X12... Cropping to other sizes changes the aspect ratio... In our example here, let's assume an 8X10 final print, but we reduce the crop to 50%...

Now when you create your print file, you can use various methods in LR, but for this exercise, we'll use the Export module... This is where we name the file, and location to export the file to, as well as the size of the image 8X10, and we can also define the density in dot/in... <-- this where you'd select for the output capabilities of your printer... and the resolution you want... If you're sending the results to a place like Nation's, then select 300dpi... if you're going to post the image on a social media site, then 72dpi is sufficient for viewing on monitors...

You can also select from various file types... Jpeg, Tiff, etc... Depending on the size/resolution you've selected, depends on the size of the file you'll create... I like using TIFF when sending to Canon printers because I seem to get better color matching between my systems and my printers...

I know... it's sort of backwards thinking, but, the final output device/size needs to be your Primary consideration in the post processing workflow...Cropping/sizing/aspect ratio is the first thing I do in my workflow...
 
Top