Resizing Question

[Frobergs2]

I thought I had this figured out, turns out I don't.

I want to start developing with this Lab that requires me to send off 5 test prints for calibration first, sized at 8x10 at 300 ppi. When I go to resize, the dimensions are locked, so I can't change both. I tried cropping to an 8x10 first, then resizing, but it changes my dimensiosn because of the lock. I tried resizing to 300 ppi first, and then cropping to an 8x10, but then the ppi drops down under 200 and the Lab requires it be at 300.

What am I missing here, anyone have a thought? :confused:

[Juergen D]

Your Lab should not ask for 300 ppi for an 8 x 10. 200 - 250 would be sufficient. But that's beside the point.
You need to resample your image. The easiest way to it in this case, is to use the Crop Tool. Set the height and width to 8 and 10" and the resolution to 300. That's done in the options bar. Do not crop away too much of the image because then you are essentially enlarging it and you will loose quality.

Juergen

[Frobergs2]

I must be an idiot, because when I used the Crop Tool, it just lets me crop, it doesn't let me type inb the res, height, width, etc. I have to resize the image for that. So what I did was, I cropped it to an 8x10, and then I resized the image, clicked to resample, checked off constrain proportions and bicubic smoother (the Help said to use that if it's being enlarged :confused: ), and then changed it to 300 ppi. Does that sound right, anyone?

This is a lot of work to use this Lab, I hope they're worth the effort. :rolleyes:

[Juergen D]

Did you un-check Constrain Proportions? Before resizing? That would distort the image.
It looks like you are using the Rectangular Marquee tool. It would work the way you are describing; you are not really doing anything wrong, except maybe for the proportions. And it is more complicated to do.
You should be using the Crop Tool (see below) and try again.

Juergen

http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1EfxTEXOn9O51AJHcananEnJlEawo0

[bwolford]

When you select the marquee selection tool you should be able to specify dimensions for the selection. Set it to 8in by 10in and click on the photo. If the photo was 8X10 to begin with, the correct area should be selected. You can move the selection around at your whim. NOW, go to EDIT-> CROP. I ignore the lab's request for 300ppi.

If you want to use the crop tool, I set Aspect Ratio to Use Photo Ratio, set it for 8in by 10in and set PPI to 300 and then I select a crop area to match the ratio. I get exactly that: 8X10 at 300ppi.

Can you send us some screen shots to help diagnose your problem? If you don't know how to capture a screen shot, tell us whether you are Mac or Windows and we'll help.

Brice

[bwolford]

P.S. My experience is the crop method doesn't produce the desired result. It in fact loses quality. If you crop tightly in a small photograph, this method will expand the size to 8X10 inches interpreting pixels to fill in the blanks and raise resolution to 300ppi. Not good.

Just curious, why do they want a 300ppi image?

Brice

[Juergen D]

Brice,
That's why I mentioned not to crop away too much in the earlier post. There is resampling involved in this case... I assume the image size to be in the 4 meg range, based on what was said earlier. The resampling to 8 x 10 may work, but it won't be perfect.
And, as I mentioned, I think 200 - 250 ppi is quite sufficient for an 8 x 10. That lab is making life rough on folks.

Juergen

[Juergen D]

If you want to use the crop tool, I set Aspect Ratio to Use Photo Ratio, set it for 8in by 10in and set PPI to 300 and then I select a crop area to match the ratio. I get exactly that: 8X10 at 300ppi.

Brice,
I don't think there is an Aspect Ratio in the Crop Tool. The Rectangular Marquee Tool has it. But that would still require resizing afterward.

Juergen

[Wendy]

Jeurgen ...

If you just set the width and height in the crop tool to the aspect ration and leave the resolution box empty then that should do it :)

Wendy

[TonyW]

Juergen: In PSE3 it's called Preset Options - they changed the name in PSE4 to Aspect Ratio but it works exactly the same (I guess it's also technically more accurate since it really is an aspect ratio and not an absolute size even though it does say still say ins in PSE4)

Tony

[Juergen D]

I did not know there was a name change. Thanks. But, if you set the Crop Tool to 8" x 10", leaving the resolution box blank, do you not get an 8 x 10 inch print at some resolution, depending on the size of your cropped image??
I think you do.
My point was to set the resolution to 300, crop as little away as possible and be done. I don't know what quality print this will yield, but assuming a 4 meg image, it could not be too bad. :)

Juergen

[Frobergs2]

Okay, I really was having an idiot moment. I was using the Crop tool, but I simply wasn't looking at the top for the height, width, res boxes...I was thinking it'd come in a pop-up as they do when you "resize image".

I don't know what the deal is with Lab, they require all photos to be at 300ppi and cropped to size, Level 10 Standard Jpg sRGB embedded. Now that I have it figured out, I suppose it's not too difficult.

I would love someone to show me how to show the screen I'm looking at though, I have Windows. In case of future problems...

[Juergen D]

I would love someone to show me how to show the screen I'm looking at though, I have Windows. In case of future problems...
That is a screen shot. On a Windows PC, you press the Print Screen button while you have PSE open. Then you click on >File >New >Image from Clipboard. That will open your screen shot as a new image. Next you go to >File >Save for Web and save it (usually there should not be any resizing required, it you are showing only a partial screen).
Last you go to Pixentral and upload the image you just saved. Copy the URL and post it here.

Juergen

[Juergen D]

I don't know what the deal is with Lab, they require all photos to be at 300ppi and cropped to size, Level 10 Standard Jpg sRGB embedded.
Getting back to the resolution. If the lab asked for 300ppi for 4 x 6's that would make sense. Insisting on 300ppi for 8 x 10's is not a good idea. First, it is not necessary, second it will soften the image when resizing is required, as in your case. You would need an 8meg image to go to 8 x 10 without any resampling.
Maybe you can talk to the lab people one more time and see if they really insist on this resolution, or possibly use a different lab.

Juergen