Quote:
Originally Posted by rainer
Thank you for your input. It is appreciated.
I had done some research on this and had lengthy e-mail correspondence with the Support Staff of the FXFOTO Software. He kept arguing that cropping a photo down to a size of 8x10 is not cropping?!! Yet they have the size on their Software stating 8x10 and so on where one drags the square rope to that particular size.
Everyone refers to it as cropping. I do understand that it implies cropping of a pixel size in inches or in cm. But" It is still cropping to me........
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When you crop, you do not change "pixel size" it remains the same, but there are fewer pixels in the file. It removes the ones on the outside of the image in the area you cut off...
Cropping no matter what anyone says, is when you cut anything out of an image to fit it into a specific size.... To communicate, everyone must use the same definitions. Many learn words who never look them up in a dictionary, they just begin using them.
This can be confusing in a discussion if someone is talking about
reducing the size of an entire image to 8x10... and the other person is thinking about
cutting the size by cropping.
If you want to create an 8x10 and retain all that is in the image, you can.
As an example: I use a zoom, and make all images by zooming to contain only what I want in that image.
When I want an 8x10 basically can
reduce the size in the Photoshop. Click Image, image size and look in the section called DOCUMENT SIZE. By clicking on the triangle to the right of "Width" you can change the setting to
inches. Then, simply change the size in inches in the box to 8x10...
NOW, lets say your camera format does not fit into an 8x10, and it would have to be cropped. Except for Portraits, we can be creative, take artistic license. Uncheck "constrain proportions" then change the box to 8x10 and everything fits, if you like it. In a landscape, no one but you may know the dimension was changed. In a portrait, it would distort the size or shape of the head so is a no no. (
Make sure you check constrain proportions when you finish, otherwise it will change all future images.)
Then, change the size in the by setting the full dimensions to 8x10 inches and 300 pixels per inch.... (Then save this with a DIFFERENT file name, to protect the original.)
This reduces the total
size of the "file" for transfer or printing, but still contains the entire image, thus it is not cropped.
It is all about definitions, not everyone understands the definitions.. There is a lot of confusion about what PPI (pixels per inch) means which gives resolution and DPI (Dots per inch) means which results in a good or poor print.
If you use fewer pixels, say 72 vs 300 in the smaller number of pixels you are actually losing resolution. If you have your own printer, try this. Take an image that has 300 Pixels Per Inch, and print it at 72 Dots Per Inch, say a 4x6 if you have a small printer. Then, print the same 300 PPI image at 300 Dots per inch, note the drastic difference. They are the same final size, but the 300 PPI image printed at 300 DPI certainly looks better.
Then, take the same 300 PPI image, change it to 72 Pixels per inch, and print it at 300 Dots Per Inch, note the difference.
Try another experiment, take the 300 Pixels per inch file and print it at 1200 Dots per inch and notice the difference. I believe you will like this image even better than all the others.
Printers who make commercial prints print at 300 Dots per inch instead of 1200 or even 2400 Dots per inch to
save money it uses less ink or dye and takes less time. They believe that 300 DPI makes an acceptable image, BUT, the images printed in National Geographic Magazine are printed with a
higher DPI so they look much better than images printed in other magazines.
Which do YOU prefer, if you like prints printed at higher DPI, get a good printer and print your best prints youself at a higher DPI. It will cost you more than at 300 DPI, BUT, Printers are making a profit on what they charge you. Put that profit they make towards a good printer and better quality ink. Print only your BEST or Exhibition quality images, and send the rest to a commercial printer.
In Dots per inch a PRINTING term that has been used ever since printing began. Printers understand it, as I went to school to learn printing with a Press in the 40's we had ONLY that term in both Photography and Printing of photographs and Printing Presses. Pixels Per Inch PPI did not come into existence until Digital Photography and Scanning of Photographs. So since the beginning of Commercial Photo Printing they used DPI, as those doing the work were used to Printing Presses.
Problems come when we do not print our own images. When I began in 1937 doing my own Developing and Printing, we experimented a LOT. We would make at least three, sometimes a dozen or even more prints at various settings to
see the result in all the changes.
When I went to New York Institute of Photography and learned color printing, we made a dozen prints using various filter settings to see results. You learn a lot from experimenting. Today all Photographers need to Experiment, experiment, experiment if they really want to learn what their equipment will do. They need to experiment with Photoshop and a printer, to learn what will produce the best results.
You might print this and save it for reference.
Read it several times and practice to really learn.
