Fran Loc: Northeast, United States

Thank you.

MadMikeOne Loc: So. NJ Shore - a bit west of Atlantic City

[quote=Linda From Maine]500 px is rather small and would be appropriate for emailing or as mentioned, posting to UHH if you don't want to provide a downloadable file.

One example: a bridge camera that is 12 megapixels and shoots 4:3 ratio will produce an image that is 4000 pixels on one side and 3000 on the other.

For printing you usually want all your pixels (don't downsize). A handy chart that explains:

http://www.urban75.org/photos/print.html[quote]

Thanks for the link to that chart. BIG help to me. I'm just getting into doing prints of some of my images for friends and neighbors and have been getting conflicting information on "how high can I go?" on print size. Of course, one other thing I need to take into consideration when determining a print size that will be acceptable quality is how severely I cropped my original image. Fortunately my usual answer is "not a lot".

BTW - I really like your "new" avatar. I almost did not realize it was you until I noted the long shadows and put 2 and 2 together.

BobHartung Loc: Bettendorf, IA

The export dialogue allows you to restrict the size of the image. When I am emailing photos to friends and family that I know are going to be viewed on a computer/ipad etc. I usually restrict them to 2000 pixels on the longest axis and change to an 8 bit color space (sRGB in this instance). Both of these restrictions lead to a smaller file size to send. All of my images originate as 50 MPx Hasselblad, 40+ mPx Sony, or 36 MPix Nikon RAW files and as such are all far too large to send via email.

You can demonstrate the effects to yourself by exporting the same image several times varying the pixel dimensions each time. You can also vary the color space as long as they are at least in Adobe RGB to begin with.

Fran Loc: Northeast, United States

Thank you. Very helpful!

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

Here's what the dialog looks like when choosing 500 pixels on the long side in Lightroom

Here's what images look like starting at 500 pixels wide, then 1000 wide, then 1500 wide and then 1920 which is what most computer screens are. Use the Download button to see the differences and then on the last image click one more time to enlarge it. See how it fills more than the screen.



(Download)


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amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

Not trying to confuse the issue, but many of the previous responses have badly confused "ppi" and "dpi". They ARE NOT the same thing and can't be used interchangeably.

ppi = pixels per inch and is a digital term.

dpi = dots per inch and is an analog term.

500px means 500 pixels total and is yet another thing... an overall size specification. Because this is a relatively small image... too small to be practical for printing... I'm willing to bet your friends are planning to use your shots for online (digital) display, such as on their website or some social media site. The reason image files are kept relatively small online is so that web pages will load relatively quickly.

Most modern computer monitors display 96 ppi, so an image that's 500px wide image will be displayed roughly 5 inches wide on-screen by most peoples' computers. (Note: old monitors commonly used 72 ppi, which would display the same image larger but less sharply... OTOH some modern "4K" displays render greater than 96 ppi, though exactly how much greater varies depending upon the overall size of the monitor, it will make the same 500px image appear smaller and sharper.)

You are shooting digitally, processing digitally and the image will be displayed digitally... so digital ppi is the only thing that needs to be considered. (OTOH analog dpi would be a factor, for example, if making use of the images for printing purposes... dpi generally refers to the conversion of an image to a half-tone, which is a series of dots that make up the image... coarser is used for less precise printing processes while higher dpi count for finer. It also can refer to the dots of ink being layed down by a printer, in some printing processes such as inkjet.)

Shoot your images at your camera's highest resolution. It's up to you whether you shoot in JPEG or in RAW... JPEGs have to be pretty much gotten "right" in the camera, while RAW have more latitude for various types of adjustment in post-processing. It usually gives the best result to make most of your exposure and color balance adjustments, as well as any retouching on highest resolution, to 16 bit RAW files. But you need some specialized software and skills to do this well.

I imagine you'll need to save the finished, 500px image as 8 bit JPEG or PNG files with sRGB color space, as those are relatively universal file types that most people have software to be able to view on their computers. Make copies of your images to resize down to that 500px on the longer side dimension (the short side just ends up being whatever it is... depending upon the image aspect ratio being used). Ask your friends whether they want JPEG or PNG.... but if they don't know, go with JPEG as those are the most widely used.

Depending on the software you are using, when you are setting the final size it may also show 72 ppi, 140 ppi, 240 ppi or something else. This really doesn't matter at all... The only thing that matters is that the longest side is set to a total of 500 pixels.

Some final sharpening may need to be done after the image is resized to 500px. Just be careful not to do very much sharpening prior to resizing or to do too much after, or you will likely see artifacts appear in the images. With a relatively small, low resolution image such as one that's only 500px, a little bit of sharpening goes a long way!

TheDman Loc: USA

We know this, but when people are just trying to grasp what that field is for, we know what they're talking about and don't correct them as that will just add to their confusion.




Monitors today have all kinds of pixel densities. My 17" monitor at work has a native resolution of 1280x1024, which works out to around 88 ppi. My 2560x1440 monitor at home is something like 118ppi. The numbers 72 and 96 have zero relevance to anything, and largely come from old, long debunked internet myths.



That doesn't need to be considered at all, at least as far as the ppi field in your image's metadata goes. That can be any number and it wouldn't matter.

DGStinner Loc: New Jersey

If they need to be a minimum of 500px, they can be larger than 500. Depending on the end result, I would export at the largest resolution possible, without upsizing.