 Judy Holland |
Dpi when downloading and printing I am confused about dpi when photographing for print. No matter which file format I choose; TIFF or jPeg when I open the photo in my PhotoShop program it shows the dpi at 72. I thought the dpi would be greater by shooting in the TIFF format. I want high quality photos which is why I thought the uncompressed format would give me more dpi. Does it show 72 dpi just because I am viewing on the monitor? Can I increase dpi to 300 dpi for print without losing anything?
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doug Nelson |
If it's Photoshop you're using, your solution is under Image/Image Size. Look at the dimensions of your biggest full-resolution images. The dimensions will probably be preposterous, 30- by 40 inches or some such. Be sure Resample is NOT checked, and change the long dimension to, say, 7. You may then see a higher resolution figure. This is a quirk with many digital cameras; the resolution is shown as 72, even if the file size is high enough to give you 300 pixel-per-inch at a normal print size. What you're doing with the exercise above is to leave the file size alone, but scrunch the available pixels into a smaller space, making more pixels per inch.
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BetterPhotoJim.com - Jim Miotke  Contact Jim Miotke Jim Miotke's Gallery |
Yes - Doug's technique is correct. Following his steps, you can increase it without losing anything. DPI will not necessarily be higher when shooting TIFFs. Many people favor TIFFs (and often manually set them to 300 dpi) but this is because the TIFF is an uncompressed file format, whereas JPEG compresses. Whether a file is compressed or uncompressed is a completely different issue from resolution. An example of the most important numbers would be 1000 x 1200 or 1024 x 768. As long as these numbers do not change, changing the other number (72 dpi, 150 dpi, 300 dpi) will not effect the quality of your image.
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Judy Holland |
Judy here. Thank you both for your answers. Now, since you brought it up which type of file format would bring the better photos? TIFF or jpeg? I have saved all my photos on a cd-r and they are in jpeg so I must assume that can't be changed but what format would you recommend for the highest quality? I have been pleased with prints I have made of previous photos and have been shooting most of the time with a 1024x768 setting also. Just give me some pointers as to file format, dpi, and which setting is best.
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doug Nelson |
If you put the uncompressed JPEG's right from your camera onto CD, I wouldn't go back and redo them as TIF's. If you are satisfied with the prints you get from the file size you're using, that's fine. If I were you, I'd shoot in TIF mode, buy the necessary memory cards to store these images, work them (crop, brightness/contrast, retouch, sharpen) as TIF's, size them in the size you're likely to print, preserving the resolution you already have, and archive them on CD as TIF's. When you want to send one or add it to a web page, THEN change it to a JPEG.
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Nancy L. Ferrell |
Thank you for the "Why is it always 72 dpi" question. I have been through the instruction manuel several times trying to slove that problem. Thanks again. YOur answer was clear and easy to follow
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