Processing of photos @ lab

[Jefferson]

Hello all,

Just like to ask all the pros here what do you usually do before sending your photos to the prints. In terms of resizing cropping etc like is there any specific thing in particular to do for all the different sizes like 4r, 5r , 8r?

Do you need to arrange your photos horizontally before resizing ?

What resolution do you size it to? Say, for a 450D camera?

Apologies for the newbie questions am putting out coz the more i look the more confuse i get.

Thanks in advance guys.

 

[karnage]

Personally, I would just crop to the aspect ratio of printed photos so that they won't anyhow crop for me and give me weird compositions. And I would ask them not to adjust anything like contrast, brightness, color etc... I want my photos as-is. As for resolution, I think I just leave it at the max... unless your thumbdrive is like 256MB or 512MB that you need to consider file size. =)

And ya, no need to arrange them horizontally or vertically. It's all the same anyway.

 

[Jefferson]

Yeah this is the part am confused. Resolution is set to 300PPI as i read somewhere that its the optimal setting. As for the dimension which is the W and H is it in pixels? or do i set it to inches ?

Please enlighten me.. thank you !

 

[catchlights]

taken from Ideal Photo resolution for printing 4R at photo shop

Posting a PM reply with similar question, it may help others on similar issue.

depends on what paper size are you printing it, there are two things to consider, #1 image ratio and paper size ratio, #2 resolution.

#1, you are using a canon 450D, the image ratio is 2:3, so if you print a 4R (4"x6") photos, S8R (8"x12"), since the paper size having the same ratio, you need not re crop your image, but if you want to print other paper size like 5R (5"x7"), or 8R (8"x10"), you need to crop it yourself before you send it for print, altho the lab can crop it for you, but it may not in the way you want it.

#2, the minimum requirement for decent quality printing is 250ppi, usually we give 300ppi for easy calculation. so a 4R (4"x6") photo, you need to have 1200x1800pixel, a S8R (8"x12") you need 2400x3600pixel, you can give higher than 300ppi, for an example, you can send a original large jpg to print a 4R, but you can't give lower than 250ppi. the photo it will be pixelated.

hope this help.
.

 

[catchlights]

the paper size of
4R photo print is 4"x6" and the image ratio is 2:3
5R photo print is 5"x7" and the image ratio is 5:7
8R photo print is 8"x10" and the image ratio is 4:5

for lab printing, most labs can take 250ppi, some can go slightly lower, however, we use 300ppi for lab printing, it is easier for us to do calculation, so if you want to print a
4R photo print, your image pixel dimension is 4"x300pixel, 6"x300pixel, = 1200pixel x 1800pixel
5R photo print, your image pixel dimension is 5"x300pixel, 7"x300pixel, = 1500pixel x 2100pixel
8R photo print, your image pixel dimension is 8"x300pixel, 10"x300pixel, = 2400pixel x 3000pixel

just set your image pixel dimension to the photo paper size you want will do.

for printing, you need not rotate the image orientation,

 

[Jefferson]

Thank you so much catchlights. That totally cleared things up for me.