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| Tip #1 |
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| Resolution & Picture Size |
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| Copyright © 2004 Photobacks.com. All Rights Reserved. |
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When we talk about the size of an image on the computer, we can either talk about its size in Resolution, pixels, print size in inches, kilobytes, and more. For the purposes of using digital backdrops, it's good to have a nice understanding of what these terms are all about, and how they're different.
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For our purposes, the Resolution of an image is the number of pixels (little colored dots that make up an image) per inch that are in your photo, either on screen or when printed. In other words, if your photo has a resolution of 300 Pixels Per Inch (or ppi), there are more dots in every inch that you see than in a photo of 72 ppi. In turn, images of the same print size, but different resolutions, will print at different qualities. For example, if both images are the same size, and one image has 300 ppi and the other has 80 ppi, the 300 ppi image will print in a much higher quality, more rich and clearer.
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The tricky part is that your computer screen won't show a difference in resolution of your image, unless the actual dimensions in pixels or inches changes...but if you just change your resolution and keep your image at 100% pixels or inches in dimension, the image will look the same. So, resolution is important for printing quality and for comparing the properties of your images on your screen. For example, if you're working with a 72 ppi image of a dog and you paste the dog on a digital backdrop that's 300 ppi, the dog will be very small, because it doesn't have as many pixels per inch.
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Yes, resolution can be confusing, but here are the main points: be aware of what your image resolutions are, knowing that there is such a thing as low and high resolution, and be careful not to lower your resolution for no reason. In the end, a good quality print will have a resolution of 230 to 300 ppi, though your eyes probably won't notice a difference give or take 50 ppi either way. (Picture print quality deals with a lot more than resolution...such as lighting and the actual printer that's printing.) Don't get too caught up worrying about resolution, as there isn't much you can do about it. The reason for us bringing it up is to make sure you know that when you're dealing with two images in the digital backdrop process, that you do not lower your resolution below that of your lowest resolution photo, and that you realize that when you bring images together on your computer of different resolutions, they may reflect a size that you'll need to adjust, and the resolution could be a big factor.
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What's most important to know about picture size is that you can resize an image smaller and preserve its quality, but for the most part, you will lose quality if you try to make a smaller image bigger. So, it's best to start with large images that can be made smaller to suit your needs. One way to increase an image's size is by decreasing its resolution, and not its inches or pixels dimensions. For example, if you have a digital backdrop that's 8 x 10 inches, at 300 ppi, you can set the resolution at 230 ppi, and since it now only has 230 pixels per inch instead of 300 pixels per inch, the pixels are more spread out, and thus, the image gets larger in inches, at about 10.5 x 13. In a real world example, if I had three baseballs per foot on the table, and I had six baseballs, they would cover two feet. But, if I took those same six baseballs and put them at a rate of two per foot, the six baseballs would spread out over three feet. Yes, we cover more space, but there are less baseballs per foot. But, in our digital example, going to less pixels per inch at 230 instead of 300 won't make much of a difference to our eyes. If we dropped our ppi to 150, it might, so we don't.
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Know that every camera is different when it comes to how the photos are taken, in pixels and resolution and inches. Our favorite camera shoots at 72 ppi. Sounds like a low resolution...but, when we look at all of our image information in our software, we see that while our images are only 72 ppi, their print size is 17 x 22 inches, which is very larger, and not the quality we want. So, we just increase our resolution to 230 ppi, and our photo shrinks to a more manageable 5 x 7 inches. Sure, smaller, but the resolution is much greater, and the print will be much better.
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But, we do suggest not resizing anything smaller unless you have to. It's best to tell your printer to print your 8 x 10 image at 4 x 6, then to tell it to print your 4 x 6 at 8 x 10. The image quality will retain the first way, and it will look poorer if you try to enlarge the second way. The exception to this rule is when you're working with a professional photo lab, and not your home printer. We take our 5 x 7 inch, 230 ppi images on a disc to our local photo lab, and we blow them up to a beautiful 11 x 14 without a problem. Sure, the most picky photographer (which we used to be) may not like what they see, but to most viewers, the images are just fine and wonderful. It is really up to you, and in this new digital format there is only so much you can do with sizing, but you will be pleased. Of course, this discussion can continue in our Users Forum if you like.
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