Question about Resolution..........

When you re-size or crop a photo, how do you decide what resolution to use?

I understand that most printers are only good for 300 dpi, but why would I ever want to size a photo to 72 pixels per inch?

Wouldn't it be best to save the photos at the highest possible density?

Thanks.

At 300 pix/in...

View attachment 12018

At 72 pix/in...

View attachment 12019

bigger is better, I always say. I always take my prints to the store to get printed though so I couldn't be of much help.. I shoot in RAW and post process to JPG, then take them in and say "I want X shot at X size, here's some money." Awesome shot by the way!

eurotrash said:

bigger is better, I always say. I always take my prints to the store to get printed though so I couldn't be of much help.. I shoot in RAW and post process to JPG, then take them in and say "I want X shot at X size, here's some money." Awesome shot by the way!

Click to expand...

I saved both shots at 8X10 and even though they look similar in quality here in the post, won't the 300 print more detail than the 72? I guess that's the point of my question... why would anyone save a photo at less than the maximum possible resolution? And, thanks.

300 should contain more pixel density than the 72dpi one if you're not going that large, correct. I sometimes save photos at less than optimal quality to post on social networking sites where information security is sketchy. This way, when someone tries to steal it and use it for themselves, the moment they blow it up they'll quickly realize that it's not a great idea

But at that size, I wouldn't think resolution would matter too too much. I could be wrong, as I said since I've not printed one myself. Maybe someone more knowledgeable could chime in and correct me if I'm mistaken.

Resolution (pixels) and printing (dpi) are 2 seperate things.

Dots or drops per inch, not pixels.

72 Dpi or Dots per inch is considered fine for PC screen or web use.
It just gives a nice small file size so it doesnt clog up your PC needlessly, its not realy meant for producing quality pics.
It is an ideal format for the likes of web designers or esstate agents etc

westmill said:

72 Dpi or Dots per inch is considered fine for PC screen or web use.
It just gives a nice small file size so it doesnt clog up your PC needlessly, its not realy meant for producing quality pics.
It is an ideal format for the likes of web designers or esstate agents etc

Click to expand...

So, if I'm understanding correctly.... there is no benefit, other than storage size, for using 72 over 300. Higher quality of detail equates to a higher pixels per square inch setting when saving a digital photograph. Correct?

TedG954 said:

So, if I'm understanding correctly.... there is no benefit, other than storage size, for using 72 over 300. Higher quality of detail equates to a higher pixels per square inch setting when saving a digital photograph. Correct?

Click to expand...

Correct If your doing a lot of web work it can speed up your work flow considerably though.

I always save at 300 and then just resize to 72 if I post it somewhere. Once I post I delete the 72 from my computer.

Thanks for all the input. This had been a big question for me.

What does it cost to print. Double that. Now how long did it take for all aspects of shooting , processing and printing. How much is you time worth. Add it all together and that should give you some sort of idea.

tracsoft said:

What does it cost to print. Double that. Now how long did it take for all aspects of shooting , processing and printing. How much is you time worth. Add it all together and that should give you some sort of idea.

Click to expand...

I think this is for a different post.... the one about how much should he charge.....?

I did some research on this recently. DPI does not affect quality on the screen as such, it is only of use to a printer. It tells the printer how big to make the print. If you had an image 300 pixels wide and save at 300 dpi it would print 1 inch wide.

Try saving a jpg at 1024 pixels wide and 72dpi. Then save it at 300dpi. Both pics should be the same bytes in size. It is pixels that determine detail.

This is my understanding after research and testing.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

TedG954 said:

I think this is for a different post.... the one about how much should he charge.....?

Click to expand...

Lol, Looks like Trac has been hitting the sauce again , and he'd been doing so well!

Interesting, I didn't understand much of that whole dpi and resolution talk too much but its pretty nice to have some insight now. I believe the rogue post was indeed meant for my other post asking how much to charge for a particular shot haha.