Resolution question

[2Princess&aPrince]

I am wondering if any of you are professional studio photographers....I would like to know, if you were to give a client a cd of their session, what dpi would you set the images to for them to make prints for their personal use?

 

[ukcatfan]

It depends on your purpose for giving the CD. If you want them to be able to use it for web pages and such, then I would not go with a resolution over 800x600. If you give them too much then they will never buy a print from you. If you do not care about that, then go full resolution. After all, you want your images to look the very best when they show them to other people.

 

[Groucho]

DPI and resolution are really two different things... you can set the DPI to 75 or 300 or 5 or 9,000 and it won't affect the digital image whatsoever. It's completely arbitrary. It only makes sense if you think of a specific print size, like 4x6. You could then figure out what the resolution would have to be to print the photo at that size at 300dpi, but the dpi changes depending on how large you print it.

 

[VVFF]

As Groucho said, DPI is completely different than resolution. Provided you don't scale the image the the process the DPI setting is completely lossless. It's simply a number that tells the program processing it how many pixels = 1 inch. That's really all. So this number changes depending if you want a 4 x 6 vs. a 13 x 19 but the resolution in both can be identical.

 

[boBQuincy]

For printing on a consumer inkjet printer a dpi of 240 to 300 is considered to give as good results as is possible. Less loses quality, more just wastes space.

This dpi is only for the file that is sent to the printer and is not the same as the pixels per inch of the printer.

 

[VVFF]

For printing on a consumer inkjet printer a dpi of 240 to 300 is considered to give as good results as is possible. Less loses quality, more just wastes space.

This dpi is only for the file that is sent to the printer and is not the same as the pixels per inch of the printer.

Actually they are used interchangeably. In photoshop, if you change the DPI of an image you will change its dimensions in measurement terms. For example, halving the DPI will expand each dimension in inch terms by two.

 

[boBQuincy]

Actually they are used interchangeably. In photoshop, if you change the DPI of an image you will change its dimensions in measurement terms. For example, halving the DPI will expand each dimension in inch terms by two.

If we refer only to dpi, yes. In the case of ppi of a printer it refers to how many dots it can put down in an inch, often 4800+.

 

[VVFF]

If we refer only to dpi, yes. In the case of ppi of a printer it refers to how many dots it can put down in an inch, often 4800+.

Exactly...except that setting is typically transparent to the user. It is a combination of the printer quality setting and paper setting.

 

[GrillMouster]

The DPI setting is useful for upsizing or downsizing if you know what you want the final dimensions to be in terms of inches. For example, if you say that you want a 4x6 inch image at 300 DPI, then Photoshop (or whatever software you're using) automatically size the image to 1200 pixels by 1800 pixels (although you may need to crop to get it to those exact dimensions). Personally, I don't bother with the DPI setting much; when I resize I enter the exact pixel dimensions that I want. A 1200x1800 pixel image with 72 DPI is identical to a 1200x1800 pixel image with 300 DPI.

So, if you're asking how large a client image should be (in pixels), I'd say don't bother resizing if you're giving them a file for printing. Clients will try to print at whatever size they want, regardless of the dimensions of the file you give them. If you try to limit their printing size by setting a lower resolution, they'll still try to print a 8x10 if they want to, and you'd be surprised how acceptable the results would be.

 

[2Princess&aPrince]

Thank you all for your information!

Right now the photos I am giving on a disc are as follows:

Pixels: 2592x3888

Document Size: 36 inches by 54 inches
with a resolution of 72 ppi

Is the 72 ppi enough information for prints a client would want to print?

 

[boBQuincy]

If we refer only to dpi, yes. In the case of ppi of a printer it refers to how many dots it can put down in an inch, often 4800+.

Oops, I put it backwards, the image is in PPI, the printer works in DPI.

 

[VVFF]

Thank you all for your information!

Right now the photos I am giving on a disc are as follows:

Pixels: 2592x3888

Document Size: 36 inches by 54 inches
with a resolution of 72 ppi

Is the 72 ppi enough information for prints a client would want to print?

That's pretty low for such a large print. You're at the point where medium format cameras are necessary to maintain quality.

 

[VVFF]

Oops, I put it backwards, the image is in PPI, the printer works in DPI.

Yeah I knew what you were saying. Unfortunately very few people(including the wonderful folks at Adobe) follow these conventions. Most refer to both as dpi making separating two very different topics somewhat difficult.

 

[Chikabowa]

I sell full res files at 300 DPI.
I sell low res web sized files at 72 DPI.

 

[VVFF]

I sell full res files at 300 DPI.
I sell low res web sized files at 72 DPI.

Only problem with judging quality on DPI is I can send you a 15MP 2DPI image It will look fantastic when viewed on screen, but will look horrible when printed out if printed to 100%.

 

[GrillMouster]

Thank you all for your information!

Right now the photos I am giving on a disc are as follows:

Pixels: 2592x3888

Document Size: 36 inches by 54 inches
with a resolution of 72 ppi

Is the 72 ppi enough information for prints a client would want to print?

No, 72 DPI (or PPI, if you prefer) is for on-screen viewing. 300 DPI is standard for printing, but in reality you can go a good bit lower than that for printing (240, for instance). I wouldn't bother giving a client exact dimensions, but with the pixel resolution you provided a client could easily print an 8x12 image. If they went as low as 240 DPI they could print it at about 10x16.

Don't worry about the DPI/PPI setting, just worry about the actual pixel dimensions. When the client delivers the file to the lab and indicates what size (s)he wants, that's the size it will be printed at, regardless of what DPI you entered. A 2592x3888 file at 72 DPI is identical to a 2592x3888 file at 300 DPI.

 

[Chikabowa]

Only problem with judging quality on DPI is I can send you a 15MP 2DPI image It will look fantastic when viewed on screen, but will look horrible when printed out if printed to 100%.

Of course a 2DPI image will look terrible.

The original poster asked what DPI professional portrait photographers sell their files to clients. I answered the question.

There was never any other question posed - so I'm not exactly sure why I was quoted???

 

[Chikabowa]

Ok... wait... now I get it.
You moved on in the discussion to actual dimensions.

I guess it would be helpful if I spent a moment to read the entire thread before posting. My bad.

 

[seashoreCM]

Right now the photos I am giving on a disc are as follows:
Pixels: 2592x3888
Document Size: 36 inches by 54 inches
with a resolution of 72 ppi

I feel that the document size and resolution as you have worded it is not really useful to the customer.

Not sure of what would be a much better wording but I would suggest something like "Pixels: 2592x3888. Suitable for professional quality prints up to 13 x 9 inches."

It's subjective but I am throwing out "professional" for 300dpi (13" for 3888 pixels), "fine" for 250 dpi (15-1/2"), and "good quality" for 200 dpi (19-1/2 for 3888 pixels).

 

[disneyboy2003]

Of course a 2DPI image will look terrible.

I know this is a little off-topic from the OP's question, but I've heard that huge billboards only require something like 10 dpi resolution for images. I did a quick Google search, and someone even mentioned using 2 dpi for a billboard!

It sounds ironic to use such low dpi for such HUGE images. But in reality, no one really walks right up to a billboard to scrutinize the images. Billboard images are usually viewed from far far away, so they can get away with using 10 dpi images and still look sharp.

So 2 dpi images won't necessarily look terrible. You'd just have to make sure you're printing a billboard-sized picture!

I agree with the 300 dpi for printing. I think it's a general rule-of-thumb for printing pictures. However, I don't think this actually answers the OP's original question (ie. don't go sending your clients a CD of images at 300 dpi ).