Mag wants to print my pic... need your help

InaGlo

InaGlo

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Glo
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Hiy guys,
One of my industry magazines wants to print a couple of my pictures & is going to give one a full page.
So, I excitedly copied my pics to disc & sent them in to the mag. Just got an email from the editor saying none of their computors can read the disc. :bang:
Shes now asked me to send the pics one at a time over the net.
Im on dial-up and some of my filesizes are huge, though mostly they average at 22MB.
Is there anything I can do? I really dont understand much about the technicalities & such but , Im presuming I need to keep it 300 dpi but can I lower the filesize & still keep the quality?
 
You could either compress the files using LZW or zip compression (TIF). I've found that that method can get file sizes down as far as 8MB (for files with lots of sky thats similar colour). In photoshop, go to save as, and choose TIFF. I'm not sure exactly what happens, but I think you get an option to save it with different compressions.

Leo
 
Firstly congrats on the mag wanting your prints

Secondly have you got winzip? if so zip the files up

When you burnt your disc and then ejected it, did you select the "read on all computers" or words to the effect check box?

She's not trying to read pc formated disc on a MAC is she?

Other than the above don't think I can help much more than that

Hope you get it sorted
 
Unless its a floppy or a hard disk he's sending (very unlikely), then the formatting issue is a non-issue. CD's don't use PC or Mac specific formats.

Unless its a CD-RW or he hasn't finalised the CD, or its being read in a very old drive, then the CD is probably corrupt - not much you can do. That can happen if you use too high a writing speed, or if something is wrong with the blank disk.

Anyway, find some way of compressing it. Congrats on the photos - I hope your getting paid something :D
 
Thanks so far guys.
Err, I dont recall seeing a message to 'read on all computers' I was rushing around, but I do recall it asking me to finalise it. (I know, I know, I sound such a dimwit).
I have a feeling she is trying to view on a Mac I seem to recall her mentioning they used Macs in the past.
 
Uploading that much by dial up is not only going to take time it may fail anyway. Can you find a cyber cafe that has a fast connection and take a CD with you (that you have checked you can read from :) ) with your files.

22M is too much for email. I'd suggest you take a look at http://www.yousendit.com/ You can upload to them and it gives you a link for downloading again by anyone you forward the link to. Max file size for free is 100Mb and it will be available for 7 days.

If you have a few pictures make them into one or more zip files less than 100Mb. You can always upload more than one file to get fround the 100Mb limit if need be.
 
It sounds like the disk was corrupted somehow to me aswell. The simplist thing to do may be to make a small version of one shot, say 10x15cm, 72dpi save it as a TIFF file and send it away by email. There is no reason why that sholdn't open when it arrives. Oh... and dont use winzip or the like, just keep as the disk versions would be.

Once the mag can confirm that the file opens up on over there, you can re-write full size, 300dpi TIFF's to disk and try again. As long as the pics open n your machine it should all be good.

Congtrats on the having them published too btw. :D
 
Oh if 'make a zip file' is not something you are familiar with - select a few picture files in windows explorer and then right click and choose Sendto - Compressed (zipped) folder. A new zip file (compressed folder in windows speak) will then be created in the same folder as the pictures. Double click it to check what is in it and then all you have to do is get it sent.
 
If it's going into Mac-world then winzip may not be a good idea.

The software may be OK going across platform but you never know with the users at the other end. ;)
 
Ok, to the guys in the know (that you guys, lol!) this is probably going to be up there with the stupid questions but, before I go off in search of an Internet cafe & go the www.yousendit.com route, can I just say that my image size for the 22 & 36mb pics are 37inches across & 300dpi.
Would it be ok for me to cut the size down to about 15" across (& proportionately down) to lower the filesize, as obviously mags dont need the image that big, or will I lose image quality by doing this. If its ok to cut the image size, will I need to resharpen again (Id already used the unsharp mask on finishing with the image).
Thanks for all your help (can you tell Im in a faff here!)
 
InaGlo said:
Ok, to the guys in the know (that you guys, lol!) this is probably going to be up there with the stupid questions but, before I go off in search of an Internet cafe & go the www.yousendit.com route, can I just say that my image size for the 22 & 36mb pics are 37inches across & 300dpi.
Would it be ok for me to cut the size down to about 15" across (& proportionately down) to lower the filesize, as obviously mags dont need the image that big, or will I lose image quality by doing this. If its ok to cut the image size, will I need to resharpen again (Id already used the unsharp mask on finishing with the image).
Thanks for all your help (can you tell Im in a faff here!)
Click to expand...

Have they stipulated Tiff? Quite honestly no one is going to notice if you jpg them at max and send them like that... though it still could take a while on dial-up
 
Hmmmm, I think you need to stop and re-trace your process steps a wee bit. I don't know what you're shooting on but I suspect it's not creating something as huge as 37 inches accross at 300dpi. Which means that you are incresing the file size (or dimensions if you prefer) along the way somewhere.

That will increase the file size and lower the quality some which isn't going to help you much. It might be worth explaining the steps you've made from the file comming out of the camera to the file ready to send.

.... and there are no stupid questions, you should know that. ;)
 
Okey doke.
Im using a Canon 5D in L (large fine quality) saving them as JPEGS. This allows for A3 & larger prints, so could be the cause of my prob.
Ive done a bit of manipulation in PS, Levels, evening out my models skin, bit of sharpening, the usual stuff and voila... a HUGE file, lol!
Yes, Im actually laughing now though I dont know why as the dealine for submission was today!
(Oh & I havent worked with TIFFS & RAW yet.)
 
OK, a few questions...

When you open the jpeg in PS and go to image size what does it tell you? Specifically the dimensions and the dpi setting. Your camera will not do 37 inches @300dpi so I'm wondering if that is the size you get at 72 dpi and you are just changing that to 300 as the mag will have requested that for print.

If you do it that way PS will make the file bigger to keep the dimensions the same. If any of this is guessed right, you need to uncheck the "resample image" button at the bottom of the image size box when you go from 72 to 300 dpi. This means that photoshop will keep the number of dot the same and you'll have less length on the image as each inch now uses 300 dots, rather than 72.

This way you keep the quality, don't have such a massive file and could get something you can email.

Sorry of this all sounds complicated, it's simple enough but I'm too simple to write it simply. If you see what I mean. ;)
 
Right, back again, just done a very stressful ...everybody just get out of my way... trip to Tesco, lol!

Thanks Dazzajl (& everyone else) for taking the time with me here, I do appreciate all your advice.

Dazzajl, I did indeed merely change the 72dpi to 300dpi, Ive never been shown or told different, am just learning as I stumble my way around!

When I click on 'Image Size' of one of my unedited, straight from the camera pics, (not the one I want to send) it says 'document size' 'width 154.09cm x height 102.73cm'. ...thats 60.667" in width. :puke:
Ive just unchecked the resample box & typed in 300 dpi & I now have a more respectable width of 36.98cm x 24.65cm height, but the filesize has actually gone from up from 3.07MB to 4.24MB.
What on earth am I doing wrong! :bang:
 
am just learning as I stumble my way around!
Click to expand...

It's the best way to learn I think. My best stumble was to stumble in here. Most of the stuff I use in PS I've learnt from this place. (y)
I don't know why your file size would still be changing within the resize box, I can only suggest keeping a close eye on it as you re-type the DPI number and see if it's altering any other values.

Even if you don't work out why in time for these shots at least you're getting a more managable size. :shrug:
 
dazzajl said:
If it's going into Mac-world then winzip may not be a good idea.

The software may be OK going across platform but you never know with the users at the other end. ;)
Click to expand...

Stuffit can open zip's fine
 
InaGlo why not just tell her you can't send files that size and do another cd? make sure it will read on another pc first and save the images in a couple of different formats so she has a choice.
 
FFS that's huge! We send JPEGs at 10" across the long side and at 175dpi compressed to about level 10, which is fine for newspaper and colour supplement use. For magazine use it should be about 12" along the long side and 300dpi and an uncompressed TIFF. When saving through photoshop there's a little bit at the bottom - three boxes: windows, Mac and Linux. Tick all three and you'll maximise your chances that it'll be readable on all platforms. Though TBH it shouldn't matter - that's the whole point of JPEG and TIFF.

For 'proper' magazine use, I wouldn't email it but would re-do the disk and either post it again or courier it down.
 
Thanks again for all your help guys... I WILL see my pic full page,:bang:
In fact Im going to re-do the disc as suggested,and just might take a nice little drive Camebridge way on bank holiday Monday & post it through the door of the editorial office ...which happens to be located near a wildlife park.
Anyone been to Shepreth? I hear they have Wolves & Prairie dogs!
Two birds, a stone, and a camera & all that! ;)
 
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