What counts as a high res file?

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Lotte Simons

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Lotte
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I obviously edit in photoshop and save as JPEG and it comes up with the little jpeg options box but what settings when saving an image actually class it as being high res?

Can we put this in simple people terms please so I follow :D I'm computer savvy but not a complete wizkid.
 
High res can mean a lot of things to different people & depends on how its going to be used (print, screen, mobile devide etc).
In my world high res will only mean an image of 300dpi or higher. Some might say a 72dpi image could be high res if the pixel dimensions are high enough (say 3000px X 2500px)...

I'm sure you'll get many opinions on this!
 
The important thing here is what are you doing with the file?

If its just saving your edits for storage i wouldnt use jpg

If its to send off for printing then I personally wouldn't use jpg but many do and it can work fine, but depends on a few things

If someone has asked you for high res images then you should be asking them what they require specifically.
 
The dpi figure is irrelevant as it is only used at print time. It can be changed at will with no change to the file size or image quality.

The jpeg quality that you are referring too governs the amount of compression - If you are saving for web use then most sites stipulate a maximum file size. You just alter the compression until you get the file size you want.
If you are saving for print then I would save at maximum.
 
dangermoose said:
High res can mean a lot of things to different people & depends on how its going to be used (print, screen, mobile devide etc).
In my world high res will only mean an image of 300dpi or higher. Some might say a 72dpi image could be high res if the pixel dimensions are high enough (say 3000px X 2500px)...

I'm sure you'll get many opinions on this!
Click to expand...
dpi has nothing to do with a file It the pixels most High Res photos are near 50MB is size
 
All depends on what you are doing with the file. I work in the printing trade, we want all files the size they are going to be reproduced at and at 300 dpi. So lets say we have a 6x4 inch image going in a magazine, we would resize the file in PS to correct size @300dpi, gives us a file size of around 8mb.

An A4 image at the correct size again is around 33MB. The reason we do this is because many programs will resize image differently, using an image at the correct size means we can sharpen as required in Photoshop.

The other reason is processing time, say you have a double page spread of a magazine which has 8 - 10 images on it, why would you want them at A4 size then reduce them in In Design, Quarkexpress or whatever program you are using to produce the pages. You are then processing 9 x 33MB images instead of 8 x 8MB files, it makes a big difference.
 
So how do you actually save something AS a high res file, cause does that mean if in the jpeg options box you set the size to 12, it just means it's a large file and not necessarily high resolution?

Mostly my images are used for onscreen purposes for those asking as well.
 
Lotte Simons said:
So how do you actually save something AS a high res file, cause does that mean if in the jpeg options box you set the size to 12, it just means it's a large file and not necessarily high resolution?

Mostly my images are used for onscreen purposes for those asking as well.
Click to expand...

It seems you are still missing the point people are getting at,
If people advise for suitable on screen sizes (any size suitable for on screen wont be high res in the typical sense) and then when you try and print from them, you will be very disappointed.

If the file is for storage and you could be using it in many way in the future then you would be best not to save it as a jpeg.
 
Chaz Photos said:
most High Res photos are near 50MB is size
Click to expand...

Maybe if they're TIFF's but certainly not as JPG's, and JPG is perfectly acceptable for printing from :)

fabs said:
Hi res - pretty much as it comes out of the camera, maybe allowing for crops (eg. 4000x2700 pixels)

Lo res - resized down, maybe for web use (eg. 800x500 pixels)

That's my understanding of the terms anyway.
Click to expand...

In layman's terms that's pretty spot on Marc :thumbs:
 
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