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Photo
Enlargement and Cropping of Digital Photos
How to enlarge and crop digital photos for the best
print quality. |
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The finest
quality photo prints from digital photos will always be
obtained by printing the original image as captured by the
digital camera. This means printing the file with the
image pixels unaltered, or without any image resampling.
Pixel resampling rebuilds the actual image data through
software manipulation, resulting in a degraded image
quality. The greater the degree of resampling, the greater
the loss in original image quality.
Photo enlargement of a digital photo can be performed
without any original file resampling. The amount of
enlargement possible depends on the original resolution,
or pixel dimensions of the photo, how large the photo
needs to be printed, and the processing software and
printing system used. In this article I will address this
issue considering use of only an image editing software
such as Photoshop, and standard printer output as a
typical desktop or medium format printer capable of print
sizes ranging from 8x10 up to 12x18.
All digital cameras capture images in a format oversized
from standard print or frame sizes. This is to accommodate
for future photo cropping to balance or fine tune the
final photo, and allow for possible adjustments to errors
made when framing the photo before capture. To produce
standard print or frame sizes, any digital photo will need
to be cropped and there are two basic image formats with
digital cameras.
Most "point and shoot" digital cameras produce
an image with a 4:3 aspect ration. We consider this image
format the "standard format digital camera"
print size. Most SLR digital cameras produce an image with
a 3:2 aspect ration. We consider this image format the
"wide format digital camera" print size. These
two different image formats vary considerably in the full
image, uncropped image sizes default from the camera. The
following link is a chart that illustrates the size
differences of these formats at various print size ranges.
Photo
enlargement, print formats and digital photo cropping.
There is a simple method you can utilize to produce photo
enlargement and photo cropping to standard print sizes
using your image editing software. For this example I will
be using Photoshop CS for the methodology, although with
any quality image editing software, the steps will be
similar. I will process a 5 megapixel, standard format
digital camera photo with a pixel resolution of 1944x2592
and an 8 megapixel, wide format digital camera photo with
a pixel resolution of 2336x3504. Photo enlargement and
photo cropping will be to the standard print sizes of
8x10, 11x14 and 12x18 to illustrate the process.
Both photo examples below are with the photo in landscape
orientation, or the image long side being horizontal. For
portrait orientation, adjust size entries appropriately.
Photo 01 - 5 megapixel standard format photo (1944x2592
pixels)
Photo 02 - 8 megapixels wide format photo (2336x3504
pixels)
Photo 01 - 8x10 photo enlargement with photo cropping:
Open photo file
Image > image size
Uncheck resample and enter 8 in the the document size
height.
Creates an image 10.667w x 8h at 243 resolution > OK.
Select crop tool and enter in toolbar parameters:
Width: 10 in Height: 8 in
Resolution: 243
To constrain crop to photo edges: view > snap to >
document bounds
Drag crop box over entire photo and position as desired.
Click checkmark at top right of top toolbar to set the
crop.
Your photo enlargement is to 8x10 at 243dpi, absolutely
original image quality.
Photo 02 - 8x10 photo enlargement with photo cropping:
Open photo file
Image > image size
Uncheck resample and enter 8 in the the document size
height.
Creates an image 12w x 8h at 292 resolution > OK.
Select crop tool and enter in toolbar parameters:
Width: 8 in Height: 10 in
Resolution: 292
To constrain crop to photo edges: view > snap to >
document bounds
Drag crop box over entire photo and position as desired.
Click checkmark at top right of top toolbar to set the
crop.
Your photo enlargement is to 8x10 at 292dpi, absolutely
original image quality.
Photo 01 - 11x14 photo enlargement with photo cropping:
Open photo file
Image > image size
Uncheck resample and enter 11 in the the document size
height.
Creates an image 14.667w x 11h at 176.727 resolution >
OK.
Select crop tool and enter in toolbar parameters:
Width: 14 in Height: 11 in
Resolution: 176.727
To constrain crop to photo edges: view > snap to >
document bounds
Drag crop box over entire photo and position as desired.
Click checkmark at top right of top toolbar to set the
crop.
Your photo enlargement is to 11x14 at 176.727dpi,
absolutely original image quality.
Photo 02 - 11x14 photo enlargement with photo cropping:
Open photo file
Image > image size
Uncheck resample and enter 11 in the the document size
height.
Creates an image 16.5w x 11h at 212.364 resolution >
OK.
Select crop tool and enter in toolbar parameters:
Width: 14 in Height: 11 in
Resolution: 212.364
To constrain crop to photo edges: view > snap to >
document bounds
Drag crop box over entire photo and position as desired.
Click checkmark at top right of top toolbar to set the
crop.
Your photo enlargement is to 11x14 at 212.364dpi,
absolutely original image quality.
Photo 01 - 12x18 photo enlargement with photo cropping:
Open photo file
Image > image size
Uncheck resample and enter 18 in the the document size
width.
Creates an image 18w x 13.5h at 144 resolution > OK.
Select crop tool and enter in toolbar parameters:
Width: 18 in Height: 12 in
Resolution: 144
To constrain crop to photo edges: view > snap to >
document bounds
Drag crop box over entire photo and position as desired.
Click checkmark at top right of top toolbar to set the
crop.
Your photo enlargement is to 12x18 at 144dpi, absolutely
original image quality.
Photo 02 - 12x18 photo enlargement no photo cropping
needed:
Open photo file
Image > image size
Uncheck resample and enter 18 in the the document size
width.
Creates an image 18w x 12h at 194.667 resolution > OK.
No photo cropping needed. Default photo size from camera.
Your photo enlargement is to 12x18 at 194.667dpi,
absolutely original image quality.
With the photo enlargement and photo cropping finished,
the next step is to print the processed images. Most
people have heard that you may need a dpi of 300 to print
photos with satisfactory quality. This may or may not be
necessarily true depending on your particular printer and
printer driver software. What I would recommend doing is
to try a little experimenting here. As said previously,
the best photo print quality will come with the least
amount of image resampling to boost image resolution or
size.
First, I would try printing the enlargements at the final
resolution in the examples above. If you are not satisfied
with the results, only then I would boost the input file
resolution. Many experts claim an input resolution of
between 200 - 300 dpi should be sufficient. I would start
at the low end of 200 dpi and resample the file to this
number to keep the degree of resampling as low as
possible.
To resample in Photoshop CS:
Open file
Image > image size
Check resample and enter 200 in document size resolution.
Click OK. Your photo is now the same size in inches at 200
dpi resolution.
Try printing again and see if this is enough resolution to
produce a quality print. You can continue attempting
different input resolutions by resampling the photo at
different dpi's. When trying a new input dpi, always start
with the original resolution file and do not use a version
of the file you have already resampled. Every time an
image file is resampled, it degrades the image quality
more.
For more tips and advice on photo enlargement of digital
photos, view this page:
Photo
Enlargement Tips
The advice in this article is intended for those who use
standard image processing and printing systems. Highly
advanced digital processing and photo enlargement software
systems such as the systems we use can yield much larger
photo print sizes while maintaining absolute original
image quality. |
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