pterribledactyl Loc: Washington

I seem to have an issue: I shoot with a D80 and when I crop the photo in PP, some of my shots won't or aren't allowed to be blown up beyond a certain size without running into resolution issues. I shoot in RAW and use PS CS4. Is there a way to maintain the resolution after cropping so that I can blow an image up to whatever size I want (i.e. 24"x 36")? Typically, my extent of PP is bringing the image into Photoshop, making any exposure changes (nominally most of the time), then saving the image as a jpeg. I use the jpegs for posting on my website; however, that site claims the resolution is too small and cannot produce a replication any larger than an 8x10 or perhaps an 8x12! I'm really frustrated with this.

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

Thats what happens when you crop heavily, you are discarding that part of the image permanently, resolution included.

CaptainC Loc: Colorado, south of Denver

MT is correct. Make all your processing on the full-size image. Then duplicate it and rename it. THEN resize for website stuff. That way you have the original file size with all your processing and you can make that huge. You cannot resize for web and THEN use that file for larger images.

pterribledactyl Loc: Washington

Just to see if I have this right... I can use the RAW processor as I bring it into Photoshop, make my levels adjustments, save as a PSD file...but do not crop?! Then, from the PSD file, crop and have blown-up as desired? I assume your statement that a PSD file will maintain its original size?! Your help is greatly appreciated! Frank (a.k.a. pterribledactyl)

CaptainC Loc: Colorado, south of Denver

Let's be clear. It is not because it is a PSD/TIFF, it is because you did not change the size, but left it in its original dimensions.

You can keep going back to the original file, duplicating it, renaming it, and making it larger or smaller. But you always have the original to go back to.

wteffey Loc: Ocala, FL USA

All images have a maximum practical print size, even those, from a high quality, high MP camera. Such an image will have a very large practical print size, but will still have a maximum practical print size. Crop out half of this image and the balance will make a similar quality photo of about half the original size. For example, a good 6 mp camera/lens combination will make nice uncropped prints up to say 16x20. Crop out half the image and your maximum will drop to 8x10, or less. No way around it with today's technology.

wteffey Loc: Ocala, FL USA

After posting my reply, and while feeding the horses, I realized that I may not have answered your question. First, any photo "saved for web" (Elements speak} is probably too small for printing at any size. Web photos are sized for quick upload and viewing, not printing. I usually end up with 3 or 4 versions of my best shots. I first rename and save a basically unedited, out of camera version. If I shot raw I may hedge due to the size of the file and save an unedited JPEG. I then crop the photo for composition, preserving the maximum detail. When doing this I double the size of what I think the print is worth. For example, if it looks like an 8x10, I'll crop to 16x20. I then apply my editing. After editing, I'll save a full size version for printing, I'll save a version for web, and perhaps a version for our digital frames. I will always download the full size edited version for printing, even if I will only want a 4x6. I do final cropping/resizing on the printer's website. Some websites will let me change the name of the downsized version, and essentially save both the large and small version. That way I don't have to re-upload if I want a larger print. When emailing a web only version I always note that the emailed version is too small to print, and indicate that I will resend a full size version if a print is desired.

oldtool2 Loc: South Jersey

Are you cropping the photo while still in the raw viewer? If so, don't. Crop after you open the image.

In PSE when you crop you can set the resolution to what ever you want in one of the boxes near the top of the screen. Inormally crop using the pto ratio. If you use a different size it might change the resolution so be sure to check it. You can do this in most programs, make sure the resolution is set to 240 or above, normally no more than 300. Make sure you save your cropped photo under a different name so you can always go back to the original if you need to.

Jim D

Blurryeyed Loc: NC Mountains.

You can resize the crop in Photoshop by changing the pixel count in your crop, this may help a little bit but the results will not be as satisfying as you are hoping for... and you should always work with a copy of your original file so that if you are unhappy with your results you can simply just throw the file away. If you enlarge in photoshop you should change your settings in the resize dialog to Bicubic Smoother when enlarging images and then back to Bicubic Sharper when reducing, bottomline is you can't just take a crop that looks great on your computer screen and make it look great on a print. A computer screen only requires 72 DPI for images to appear acceptable, for printing purposes you really should be above 200 DPI for images, anything above 300 DPI is overkill on images. You can divide your linear pixel count by 200 to get a reasonable understanding of how large you can make a print that you will be happy with.