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Marcus Heslop

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Marcus
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First of all I apologise in advance for my ignorance. I'm not a photographer so I need some help. I've written a book and I'm trying to upload a photo for the front cover. This is on Amazon, print on demand, Kindle Cover creator. The photo is not a scan of the original but rather a photo of a photo. The cover creator states that for picture quality it must be 300 DPI. I have tried numerous free tools to convert the picture. The outcome is that these free tools say the picture is now 300 DPI but the cover creator says otherwise. You may ask what the size of the photo is but I really don't know as its been copied and cropped so many times. Any advice is greatly appreciated.
 
Hi and welcome to TP

Firstly, you mention the photo in question is a photo of a photo and has been much 'handled' so to speak. Is the original photo yours? Why is that important, I have seen mention all to often of folk copying a photo for their own projects but they are not the copyright holder or have a license to use the photograph.

I take it you have the photo on your computer.......do tell us the file size in KB or mb, plus what are its pixel dimensions eg 1000 x 768 pixels? Finally, what size does the "cover creator" specify it says it requires?
 
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The photo is of the actor Guy Standeven and I have permission from the photographer who took it (Mike Laye) to use it. I will check out the dimensions and get back to you.
 
I've found the email in which I was first sent the image. It was a scan from a spotlight actors directory. Downloading it, the dimensions in the tab read 600 (800 x 573). However I would want to crop it as one side has written information about his agency, previous work etc.
 
Marcus Heslop said:
I've found the email in which I was first sent the image. It was a scan from a spotlight actors directory. Downloading it, the dimensions in the tab read 600 (800 x 573). However I would want to crop it as one side has written information about his agency, previous work etc.
Click to expand...

Ah! if I am reading this correctly the image dimensions are 800 x 573 pixels. That is minute, 300dpi or more properly 300ppi (Pixels Per Inch), you might see where I am going.......you need a pixel size of multiples of 300 e.g. for a book cover of 10inches x 8 inches your image needs to be 3000 x 2400 pixels. Note ~ I have not accounted for any extra for print 'bleed' in my example.

I can only suggest you reach out to the photographer again and explain what you are doing again and get an appropriate sized file directly from him!
 
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As someone who is absolutely clueless about photography I thank you for your help. I will contact Mike and share this conversation, cheers again,
 
Marcus Heslop said:
As someone who is absolutely clueless about photography I thank you for your help. I will contact Mike and share this conversation, cheers again,
Click to expand...

In some respects your question is not one about photography but all about meeting the requirements of the printer(eBook or print) in regard to what specifications 'pictures' need to be!

As I perceive it for a purely eBook aimed publication the image resolution is not as critical re: 300ppi as for print, thus the Amazon emphasis is on PoD (Print on Demand) i.e. it what you create needs to be suitable for the PoD process and eBook (Kindle) versions are a byproduct (so to speak).

I hope, once you explain, to Mike Laye, what you are doing & need he will be able to supply a more usable resolution image :)
 
Yes. It is always well worth obtaining a suitable quality image. Pixelated, low resolution ones used in publications really gives a very bad impression.
 
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