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Participant
December 12, 2022
Question

pixels per inch for printing

  • December 12, 2022
  • 6 replies
  • 3169 views

So I am new, So please be kind 🙂

My Nikon is a 47.5MP camera. I shoot in Jpeg/Raw

I have a pic that has been converted to the psd file format. It is 74. MP

I open in Adobe photoshop

I look at image size and for a 50X30 it shows its only 134 pixels per inch

From my math a 5X30X300 is a little over .5 MP

Why wont it show up as a higher resolution?

I have a cannon pro 6100 and i want to be able to print the full width at 300. What am i doing wrong?

Probably many things, so far this has been a lesson in humility and patience 🙂

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I have been reading everything i can find and watching tutorials as well.

Kind Regards, Joe

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6 replies

NB, colourmanagement
Community Expert
Community Expert
December 13, 2022

When seeing the image with low resolution - are you looking at a processed RAW or the Jpeg the camera created?

 

I hope this helps
neil barstow, colourmanagement net :: adobe forum volunteer:: co-author: 'getting colour right'
google me "neil barstow colourmanagement" for lots of free articles on colour management

davescm
Community Expert
Community Expert
December 12, 2022

A 50 x 30 inch document at 134 pixels per inch will be 6700 x 4020 pixels = 27 MPixels which is short of the MP count from your camera. Also the aspect ratio is different to the normal 3:2 ratio so something is off.

 

Can you confirm :

a. The camera model

b. How you converted RAW to PSD - was any cropping involved?

c. Take a screenshot of the PSD showing Image >Image Size dialogue.

 

Dave

 

 

 

Dave

Participant
December 12, 2022

Nikon d850

I originally brought in as a nef

original size per the dialogue box is 6768X4016

I had saved the changes as a psd in photoshop.

I am sorry, but I am still learning the language. I thought if an image was brought in as a nef that would make it

a higher resolution as there are more MP to work with.

I open the raw and then save it as an nef.

I think I am struggling to understand the resolution thing. I thought it was width X length X the pixels per inch that i wanted so 50X30X300= 540000 pixels or is that supposed to be megapixels?

 

I apologize for my ignorance. 🙂    Joe

davescm
Community Expert
Community Expert
December 12, 2022

Hi

A D850 should allow you to take raw images at 8256 x 5504 which is 45.4 M Pixels.

When you open a NEF file in Photoshop you are opening it in a plug in called Camera Raw. When you are finished making adjustments for the conversion from Raw you click Open to open the file in Photoshop from where you can save it as a PSD. However, before clicking open (still in camera Raw) check at the bottom of the Window and you should see some settings for Color Space - bit depth and size. Click on that and you will get a dialogue for image sizing. Make sure that is set to match the full pixel size from your camera.

 

Of course if you have cropped the image in camera raw, the size will be reduced.

 

The size in pixels is length x ppi x height x ppi so in your example 50 x 300 x 30 x 300 = 135 M Pixels

 

Dave

 

 

Derek Cross
Community Expert
Community Expert
December 12, 2022

Bear in mind that what PECourtejoie has clearly explained, that 300PPI is the recommended resolution for producing artwork for images to be reproduced in magazines and books that are read relatively closeup. Larger sizes, that are used for things like posters that are read from a distance, can have a much lower resolution.

PECourtejoie
Community Expert
Community Expert
December 12, 2022

Indeed, I was replying to the mathematical part of the Question, assuming that the OP absolutely needs that resolution.

I've been very surprised by the quality of prints with way smaller resolution on a plotter. If there is not too much jpeg compression, usually, images scale pretty well. But as soon as jpeg blocks are there, it's pixel soup.

But here, @Joseph27096658zjkc starts from a very high resolution NEF image...

I'd try printing a part of the image at super res, at final size, and the same part, scaled by Ps, or by the printer driver at the regular resolutin, as the DNG produces by super resolution are HUGE.

Legend
December 12, 2022

What will the viewing distance be? Have you tried a test print to see how it looks at original size? It will look fine if you are viewing it from several feet away.

PECourtejoie
Community Expert
Community Expert
December 12, 2022

hi, I guess it is a D850 or a Z7. The D850 has a resolution of 8256 x 5504 px.

8100/300 is 27 inches, while 5400/300 is 18 inches.

You can use the super resolution in Camera Raw ( https://helpx.adobe.com/camera-raw/using/enhance.html) to double each dimension, and get a 54x36 inches image at 300PPI, which is very close or exceeds what you want.

Stephen Marsh
Community Expert
Community Expert
December 12, 2022

Please provide original image dimensions in pixels and cropped or resized dimensions in pixels.

 

How will the images be printed? Inkjet? What is the viewing distance? You probably don't need 300ppi at final size.