help PLEASE!!- photo resolution - SBB Digital Scrapbooking Forums | Scrapbook-Bytes

brovic · #1 (**permalink**) 09-30-2006

okay...so i know for 100% fact that all the photos that i have taken in the past 3 years have been on my camera's best setting, and that they were all 300dpi. But for some reason, they are now all 260 or less!! Would dip do this on it's own in opening them up?..i am not using the library to open them which i know it will sometimes do that there...but i am opening them directly from the folder.
If it is not my dip..would someone know if moving or transfering a file to an external harddrive would cause this? I am going crazy!! i have about 5000 plus photos that have now been diminished in resolution and I just can't believe all the time it is going to take to fix them. any help would be soooooooo appreciated!

kimlizzy · #2 (**permalink**) 09-30-2006

DIP can't change the resolution of your photos like that. My camera is set on the best quality setting but when I upload them to the computer they are displaying at 72ppi. In DIP they are 72ppi and huge in size. I change the resolution to 300 and save them before I burn them.

One thing to check would be the default resolution you have DIP set to. Go to Tools/Options and check/change the default resolution there.

shelleyrae · #3 (**permalink**) 09-30-2006

Ignore resolution for a moment
What is the pixel measurements of your image as set in camera?

Open your photo in DIP and go to Image Size> What are the inches, pixels and resolution saying?
Compare the pixel measurements with what you have your camera set at. Do they match?

Change the resolution to the 300 and lock it. What do the pixel measurements say now - how have they changed?

If you can let me know the answers i can explain what is going on.

brovic · #4 (**permalink**) 10-01-2006

thank you shelleyrae!!
my image size is quite large....17.07 by 12.80 pixels are 3072 by 2304 and the resolution is 180. when i switch to 300 resolution, the size stays the same, but the pixels become 5120 by 3840.
Is that what it is supposed to be?..now ive gotten myself confused, becuz when i dragged it into a 12by12 canvas, it all of a sudden was 300dpi. am i going batty??
and...yes the pixels match the setting on my camera.
thanks for your help shelleyrae!!!

Tracey R (Haley64) · #5 (**permalink**) 10-01-2006

Can I jump in this thread also??

So tonight my nephew and his girlfriend brought me their photo's from their new 6.5 mega pixel camera to do their grad photo's. I know this camera has to have higher settings but it is too late now, most of the fall colors are fading fast!!
Apparently they have their setting set to 72ppi, the photos info says 2112x2816 Pixels, 29.333 x 39.111 Inches @ 72ppi.
Shelleyrae is it your understanding that I can just resize these and set the ppi to 300 and because of the inch size of the file it will print ok if I change it?
I have kept the originals of all these photo's, but don't want to run into another nightmare of trying to fix and correct 72ppi photo's and getting them to print clearly without jpeg artifacts everywhere in them...YKWIM?
If anyone can help me with this..I would love it!

shelleyrae · #6 (**permalink**) 10-01-2006

Ok let me see if I can explain this

The only way to "get" it is to do really.

When you open a photo in a software program, the camera dictates at what resolution it opens - for eg My mothers 5MP Olympus photos always open at 72DPI for me, while my 8MP Nikon always open at 300 it sounds like your camera sets the default to 180. The pixel size of the image not the resolution is the measurement that is important

To ensure a quality print you need to maually change the resolution to the print standard of 300ppi - this should not affect the pixel size measurements but will affect the physical size of the image. 300ppi literally means for each square inch of the image there are 300pixels. If you change the amount of pixels per inch, say to 72ppi your image size will get larger but its quality will decrease, because there is less information per square inch of the image.
If you want to simplify the whole mess then just know that to find out what the maximum print size of an image is at 300ppi you divide the pixel height and then pixel width by 300.
2400px ÷ 300 ppi = 8”
3000px ÷ 300 ppi = 10”

To make a photo with a pixel measurement of say 1200 x 1500 which at 300ppi would measure 4x5 inches into a 8x10 your resolution would be halved - 150ppi so the final print quality would be less.

Do this along with me

Open a photo and make 3 duplicates - close the original
Create a blank 12x12 canvas at 300ppi
Drag one photo onto it

Select the second photo
Go to Format> Image Size
The image size should read as following, based on the numbers you gave me
Size: 17.07 by 12.80 inches
Pixel: 3072 by 2304 px
Resolution 180 ppi

Now click on the pixel measurement lock button and change the Resolution to 300ppi
Your Image size should now read
10.24 x 7.68 inches - this is the maximum size you can print the image and still retain a 300ppi print
Pixels should stay the same
Resolution is 300ppi

Click Done and the drag this photo onto your canvas - see? same size

Choose another duplicate go to Format> Image Size
Lock the pixel size and change the resolution to 72ppi
You will notice the physical size changes to 42.67 x 32 inches
Select Done
Now drag that image onto the 12x12 canvas - see? It shows up at the exact same size of the other two photo's

Does that help you understand how it works?

Its one of those concepts you sort of get by osmosis but take a look here http://scrapbook-bytes.com/cgi-scrip...icle_285.shtml as well

shelleyrae · #7 (**permalink**) 10-01-2006

Tracey given those dimensions - change the resolution to 300ppi and you have a maximum print size of 7.04 x 9.39 inches

Tracey R (Haley64) · #8 (**permalink**) 10-01-2006

Thank you so much!! It worked fantastic!! I was able to pull out a 8x10.667 with 264ppi!!
That should work just fine as long as Walmart doesn't need to crop the 8 inch side??? Hopefully they can just crop the .667 out from either the top or the bottom, right?