What size of images to put on a disk

Seajay

Seajay

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Cathy
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Morning all!

Need some help. I want to put some baby pics on a pen drive to give to the mum so that she can print or do what she wants with them.
Question is ! How do I make sure that I am giving her a jpg file big enough to give her the chance to print several different sizes?
I know it may be a simple thing but I am not sure what is the best plan for giving images to others.
Cathy
 
How big is the pen drive and how many images do you want to give her? You can get a lot of full-res jpegs on a modestly sized pen drive..
 
Cathy,
I am no expert but when i print images i use TIFF files and if you only have 10-15 images should be enough space on the 8GB pen drive.
If you want JPEG just set it to the higest quality you can and again will be more than enough space on 8GB for the images. Think a high quality JPEG is good for printing up to around A4 size maybe A3 but sure someone will clarify soon.
 
If your giving files away to print with I would give full size jpg and tiff, and also a small version for use on facebook. Then your client or/and the printer can both be happy, also put a permission to print pdf on the disc giving your client permission to print the files, so when the client takes the disc to their printer and they ask if they have permission to print the images, the pdf is all ready on the disc, save client and printer a lot of explaining and time.
 
8Gb is going to more than big enough. Output to full size JPEG Maximum Quality in sRGB colour space. This will give you a JPEG at between 5-8 Mb although this will be dependant on file size
 
What they said... :)
 
This is all super info!
Thank you everyone. I love the idea of adding the small file for Facebook etc I take it these are the ones we save at 75 DPI
Does anyone have a copy of a PDF permission to print file they can share or a link to a template ?
 
Seajay said:
This is all super info!
Thank you everyone. I love the idea of adding the small file for Facebook etc I take it these are the ones we save at 75 DPI
Does anyone have a copy of a PDF permission to print file they can share or a link to a template ?
Click to expand...

The DPI value has almost no use.

If you save a 3000 x 1000 image it has 3 mega pixels, irrespective of the DPI value. and if you view it full size on a monitor, it will take up 3 million pixels.

You need to scale the image to a new size. It's always best for the photographer to do the scaling as then you can fiddle with settings to get a decent image.

If you're aiming at HD (TV, monitors, projectors), you want the longest edge on a landscape image to be about 1500 pixels or 1000 for portrait.
 
if these are tighly cropped images then you also need to give customer some advice on print sizes.... for example I crop all my pics to print 7x5,a4,a3,a2 ect... if someone tries to print at 6x4 or 10x8 ect it will ruin the picture because my style of photogrpahy is a tighter crop....
 
Seajay, sent you a pm with a version of a print release form.
 
You have all been a super help thank you.
I never thought about her sizes of prints when I was processing I just cropped to what my eye felt was required.
So a good lesson learned for future. Usually friends are just happy to have a canvas on order or download images from my dropbox and send them to their phone /iPad or facebook etc, this is the first time I have decided to try getting them onto a pen drive so it will be good to get it right.
I will go back through them all and make sure they are at a size that is suitable. I would not think they would want them any bigger than 10x8. I usually keep the best ones a little bigger to allow for canvas prints.
Cathy :)
 
Providing TIF files is a complete waste of time. A 3000 pixel jph image (with low compression) can be printed around 30" (and more). I use 3000 pixel longest edge. My JPG files are 2-5Mb and never had an issue.
 
All you need to do is open the tif and the jpg you send them..... Can you see any difference? If not there will be no difference in the orint either.
 
You did not say what size the files were ie jpeg large basic large fine etc or what the MP of the camera was..
Most of my wedding pictures are 24MP 6000x4000 and shot in Jpeg basic and I get 600 + onto a 4 GB stick.
 
EOS_JD said:
Providing TIF files is a complete waste of time. A 3000 pixel jph image (with low compression) can be printed around 30" (and more). I use 3000 pixel longest edge. My JPG files are 2-5Mb and never had an issue.
Click to expand...

I will disagree with this, as a high quality printer and picture framer i see thousands of files to print and the difference between tiff and jpg is quite considerable. you will see difference between a jpg and tiff at sizes over 12"x16".

As it only takes a matter a few extra key strokes to to add the extra files, it can save time later if the client asks for them.
 
I regularly print much bigger images on JPG - you would never see the difference.

Perhaps the jpg images you are commenting on have had a large amount of compression applied before being saved? It's like ppi - Most printers have no idea what it actually is :) Saving a jpg just makes more sense as it's universally accepted and is not a memory hog and uploads much more quickly.

Here's 2 images..... I took the original RAW and saved one as a tif and the other as a jpg (quality 10).
I then took a 100% crop of the TIF and saved as a tif.

I took a 100% crop of the jpg and saved again at quality 10 (so 2 lots of compression added).

I challenge you to see the difference.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/qncnd4z0qjt6uu1/Untitled-1.tif?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/24a8o7aqtsdsp54/Untitled-2.jpg?dl=0
 
Instead of a drive, did you think about online distribution instead? I only use discs for weddings now but for family/portrait/baby shoots, I'm using Zenfolio to deliver my photos. The clients can download them directly from there. It makes it easier when they live far from me. Last month, Pass.us became free for galleries under 100 photos. I love the look and feel of their galleries and your client can download them or share them on social network directly from there. The gallery stays online for 10 years. I think it's great for clients that have family all over the place because they can send the link to them. Here is an example of a gallery there: http://ericcote.pass.us/tijana-et-mourad/

It's free to open an account and you can make as many galleries as you want for free under 100 photos. For more than that, it's 29$ per gallery. http://pass.us/

(For the original question, save in full resolution JPEG in sRGB)
 
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