Help with crop ratios

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Dex
Edit My Images
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Im trying to crop a photo down so that it will fit a 24x16 poster, what crop ratio would i select in photoshop?

Many thanks Dex
 
3x2 - 24x16

what version PS do you have?
 
Don't forget to select DPI of around 300 when you crop...

It's in the tutorial :)



That is actually poor and incorrect information - you do not need (and should not) resize with ppi at 300ppi for very large images. I appreciate this has been taken from a tutorial here but the tutorial is looking at small images and 300ppi is probably appropriate for images that will be viewed from a few inches away. Most cameras today will easily do a 10x8 at 300ppi so byu selecting that you are reducing the No of pixels and therefore file size needed to get a nice print.

But large images like a 24x16 at 300ppi mean massive file sizes and adding randomly generated pixels that are not required. These images will be viewed from a few feet (metres) away and do not require pixels packed so closely together. For large images I'd recommend the native resolution unless that falls below around 150ppi. I have a huge image in my hall printed at 150ppi and you would not see any drop in quality at normal viewing distances. Even close up you would struggle to see a difference.

For info dpi is a printer resolution

ppi is the resolution of the digital image. By adding random pixels you could in fact be reducing the quality of the image.
 
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If DSCL want 300dpi for a 24x16 print then that's good enough for me..................but I do understand what you are saying :)

http://www.dscolourlabs.co.uk/imageresizing.cfm

Yes I see what you mean.
For me that is a failing of the lab. But the quality is normally fine from them - I just don't see the point why they would ask when an image with 150ppi would give the same final quality.
 
That is actually poor and incorrect information - you do not need (and should not) resize with ppi at 300ppi for very large images. I appreciate this has been taken from a tutorial here but the tutorial is looking at small images and 300ppi is probably appropriate for images that will be viewed from a few inches away. Most cameras today will easily do a 10x8 at 300ppi so byu selecting that you are reducing the No of pixels and therefore file size needed to get a nice print.

But large images like a 24x16 at 300ppi mean massive file sizes and adding randomly generated pixels that are not required. These images will be viewed from a few feet (metres) away and do not require pixels packed so closely together. For large images I'd recommend the native resolution unless that falls below around 150ppi. I have a huge image in my hall printed at 150ppi and you would not see any drop in quality at normal viewing distances. Even close up you would struggle to see a difference.

For info dpi is a printer resolution

ppi is the resolution of the digital image. By adding random pixels you could in fact be reducing the quality of the image.

This is advice is neither incorrect or poor. It is what virtually every decent print lab requests - I have recently produced 24x24 prints for my local nursery which hang in their foyer. They are viewed from about 3 feet away. The file size was just 6mb.
 
This is advice is neither incorrect or poor. It is what virtually every decent print lab requests - I have recently produced 24x24 prints for my local nursery which hang in their foyer. They are viewed from about 3 feet away. The file size was just 6mb.

I think you misunderstand me. I'm not saying that resizing a 24x24 to 300ppi will look particularly bad. (although it could depending on the image you are resizing).

Also the distance issue is for printing images at very low resolutions. As you step back you see less detail so 300ppi is really not required for big prints. Even close up you struggle to see much difference.

What I'm saying is resizing to 300ppi is just not required. You do not need to resize to 300ppi to get a high quality print. All you are doing is creating large images - to be fair storage is not so much of a big deal these days) but still you are adding random pixels that are generally just not needed.

Also how would you describe a "decent lab"? DSCL do request 300ppi and the images will be fine, But I know also that I can send my prints to One Vision or Loxley and they will print what they are sent and they come back perfect too without wasting time resizing and increasing file sizes.

I'm just saying it's not needed for most uses.
 
How do you set the dpi?
 
How do you set the dpi?


dpi is a printer setting so you generally don't need to worry about that if you are sending an image to the lab.

When printing at home I use an Epson R2400 which has a top resolution of 5760x1440. Although that is quite a "false" representation as each of the 8 colours make up single dots so the "real" resolution is more like 720x180dpi

I generally use it at 360x180dpi but my prints are set anywhere from 150ppi-300ppi depending on the pixels available.

The issue is the term dpi is used a lot instead of the correct ppi which confuses things.
 
I should also add that by sending a print at a lower resolution, you lab's RIP software (that resizes (interpolates) the images) will do a better job than photoshop or any other consumer software so another reason NOT to add generic pixels.

Best left to any decent lab to do that.
 
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